Tom and his adoptive parents Ferdinand and Juliette are spending the summer holidays with Lili, a girl of Tom’s age. Lili’s parents run a family zoo, the kind of small amusement park, which can still be found along French county roads. Lili’s parents have gone off to Africa in search of crocodiles, leaving their daughter in the capable hands of Ferdinand and Juliette, who are also looking after the zoo. It’s summertime, amidst a sweltering heat wave, and there’s something a little strange in this well-ordered little world. Everything’s fun and games, until the day some frogs warn the two children about an impending disaster; another flood is about to happen. When the first thunderclaps are heard, Ferdinand decides to shelter the household in the barn. The ingenious retired sea captain uses a tractor wheel to transform the building into an ark with room for the animals from the zoo. Whilst the potatoes brought aboard satisfy the humans’ appetites for French fries, tension arises between animal herbivores and carnivores. Lions and wolves look hungrily at passing sheep. The human characters must find a way to persuade their animal friends to observe a truce until the waters recede.