30% OF THE AUTHOR'S ROYALTIES WILL BE DONATED TO A RAIN FOREST CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION OR A FOUNDATION THAT SUPPORTS AND PROVIDES SUPPLIES FOR IMPOVERISHED SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES IN THE AMAZON.

Mariposa goes to the Amazon to visit her uncle, T'o Toucan, who is a naturalist and guide in the rain forest. She wonders why she ends up going with her Papa on the trip to northern Peru, instead of her brother. She would have preferred staying home in Los Angeles to dance to pop music with her best friend, Monica.

Mariposa and Papa stay in her uncle's river village house on stilts. Her uncle, T'o Toucan, is full of silly jokes, but he is also a serious environmentalist who is worried about the fate of global forests and indigenous people.

Mariposa makes friends with some very poor village children - Roberto, Celia, and Norma. She has adventures learning about blow guns, trading at a village, fishing for piranhas, and helping scientists record botanical data on a canopy walkway.

One special day a shaman tells her that with the spirit of the rain forest she could bring something back home and that she could dance for the forest. She wonders what he means.

T'o Toucan takes her to look for pink dolphins, to study birds with an ornithologist, and hosts a village celebration and dance to celebrate their visit.

On the airplane going home she talks to a tribal Amazonian who is on his way to a global summit to complain about rain forest destruction. That conversation helps her to make a decision.

When Mariposa goes back home to Los Angeles, she and Monica ask the principal if they can hold a school dance to raise money for rain forest preservation. Mariposa speaks at a school assembly and the science club helps to advertise the project. They have a very successful, festive "Rain Forest Dance" and raise a few hundred dollars. Mariposa learns that children can speak up, take action to save the earth's ecosystems, and help poor children who need books and shoes.