A hen living on a farm finds some wheat and decides to make bread with it. She asks the other farmyard animals to help her plant it, but they refuse. The hen then harvests and mills the wheat into flour before baking it into bread; at each stage she again asks the animals for help, but they still refuse. Finally, with her task complete, the hen asks who will help her eat the bread. This time the animals eagerly accept, but the hen refuses, stating that no one helped her with her work and decides to eat the bread herself.