"Rudyard Kipling's whimsical story of how the whale got his sieve-like throat is the subject of this animated film. Long ago, after the whale has eaten all the fish in the sea, he decides to consume a sailor on a raft. Once inside the whale, the man jumps about, causing hiccups, until the whale agrees to take him home to get rid of him. As he leaves the whale's mouth at trip's end, the sailor lodges a huge grid, made from his cut-up raft, in the whale's throat, so that until this day the whale can eat only very small fish." - Summary from teacher's guide.