The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Little Badger, Darcie. A Snake Falls to Earth. Chronicle Books, LLC, 2021.

Darcie Little Badger's novel A Snake Falls to Earth is written from both the first and third person points of view. Over the course of the novel, the author braids her two main characters Nina's and Oli's disparate storylines into one legendary tale of friendship and bravery. The following summary employs a linear plot structure and the present tense.

Nina is a 9-year-old girl living in Texas with her father. Her mother's translating work keeps her away from home for extended periods of time. Although Nina has no friends and misses her mother constantly, she is close with her grandmother and great-great-grandmother, Rosita. Shortly before Rosita's death, she tries to tell Nina an important story. However, because Rosita is speaking an Apache dialect which no one speaks any longer, Nina cannot understand the majority of what she is saying.

Over the course of the following seven years, Nina remains determined to translate Rosita's story. She believes it holds the answers to the many mysteries accumulating around her. She knows that there once was an era when life on Earth was connected to life in the Reflecting World, a parallel realm that houses animals, monsters, animal people, and spirits. She is desperate to understand if such creatures still exist, and if they can still travel between the two worlds. The more she studies and researches, the more mysteries she encounters. Her grandmother's ancestral land also seems to possess some magical qualities. Her family has told her stories about encountering animal people on the property. Nina also knows that her grandmother gets sick every time she leaves the land, but is completely healthy when she is at home.

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old cottonmouth snake named Oli is sad to be leaving home. Like all of his siblings, he must leave his mother and childhood cottage in order to create an independent life beyond. Almost as soon as he ventures out into the Robin-Kept Forest, Oli is overcome by fear and homesickness. In the first spot where he sets up camp, he is attacked by an alligator person. Like Oli, the alligator is able to transform into a human-like form. Oli bites the alligator in order to escape, but loses his favorite possession in the process: a blanket given to him by his mother.

Oli eventually finds a spot to live near the bottomless lake. Here he meets a small toad named Ami who becomes his only friend. Oli loves Ami but is wary of all other creatures, believing they will harm or deceive him in some way. Therefore when the coyote twin sisters Risk and Reign appear at the lake asking to use Oli's raft, Oli is hesitant. When the coyotes tell Oli what they want to do with the raft, Oli cedes and joins their adventure.

Not long later, Ami falls ill. Oli rushes him to a coyote healer. The healer explains that Ami is sick because his species is going extinct on Earth. Although Oli knows that Earth is dangerous, he decides that the only way to save Ami is to travel there. When Risk, Reign, and Oli's other new friend, Brightest, hear Oli's plan, they offer to join him. Together they venture to Earth.

Oli and his friends arrive at Nina's home. They have heard that they can trust her family. They explain their dilemma to Nina, and she eagerly offers to help. Nina is also thrilled by the animal people's arrival, as it proves their existence and the sustained connection between Earth and the Reflecting World. Together the friends devise a scheme to help save the remaining members of Ami's Dallas toad population.

Meanwhile, Nina is worried about her grandmother's well being. A hurricane is creeping towards Refuge County where her grandmother lives. Because she gets sick whenever she leaves the property, Nina's grandmother does not want to evacuate when the storm comes.

Nina's new friends suggest that they use their magical powers to wrangle the hurricane and trap the resulting tornado. Though the feat seems impossible, together the friends accomplish what they set out to do.

A year later, Oli is back in the Reflecting World and preparing for a new life with his coyote friends. He has learned much about himself and feels ready to embrace life's unknowns.