When Noot is finally allowed to paint umbrellas like the other women and girls in her village, she secretly hopes that she might be chosen as this year's Umbrella Queen. Carefully, she creates serene flowers and butterflies exactly as she has seen her mother and grandmother do for years. But soon her imagination takes over, and Noot finds herself straying from the old patterns, to the dismay of her family, who depend on the traditionally painted umbrellas...