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The novel is set in Indiana. Most of the action takes place either in or around the Limberlost Swamp, or in the nearby town of Onabasha.

Elnora Comstock is a poor girl, living with her widowed mother Katharine Comstock on the edge of the Limberlost swamp. She begins high school at the beginning of the novel, despite lack of money and her painfully unfashionable dress. These are resolved by the kindness of her neighbours, Wesley and Margaret Sinton, and by her enterprising scheme to gather and sell artifacts and moths from the Limberlost Swamp.

She also faces cold neglect from her mother, a woman ruined by the death of her husband in the swamp; she has taken this out on her daughter, as she had to watch him drown whilst giving birth to Elnora. Eventually, she wins her mother's love; a new problem is thrown in her way in the shape of a young man sent to Onabasha to recuperate from an illness. He helps her to gather moths, and stays with her for a summer; the two gradually fall in love, but he is engaged. A year later, he breaks his engagement, and after some more trials and tribulations, he and Elnora are wed.