A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregonian wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.

In ordinary Somerset County, a young farm girl named Fern rescues the runt of a litter of pigs from her father's ax. Fern names the pig Wilbur, takes care of him, and continues to visit him every day after he is moved to her Uncle Homer Zuckerman's barn across the road. But it's Wilbur's friendship with Charlotte the spider that ultimately saves him from the "smoke house" when Charlotte's talent for weaving praiseworthy words about Wilbur into her...

Wilbur the pig and his farmyard friends learn much about friendship from Charlotte, a small spider.