Ruby hides behind a tree to avoid practicing for her Tuskday ceremony, which is two days away.

Aunt Akello finds Ruby hiding and urges her to prepare for Tuskday, reciting the Creed of the Herd.

At Canine Corner, Ruby mentions Aunt Stella to Ivan and Bob and the group falls into painful silence.

Jabori, who cared for Ruby at an African elephant orphanage, tracks her down and visits the sanctuary.

After seeing Jabori, Ruby unexpectedly breaks down crying while trying to describe how much she missed him.

Bob urges Ruby to stop keeping her pain inside and to tell them more about her life in Africa.

Ruby reveals to her uncles that her mother Bishara was shot dead by ivory poachers on the savanna.

Two young bull elephants shield Ruby from watching the poachers take her mother's tusks and lead her to safety.

Ruby is tranquilized by humans and airlifted in a helicopter, waking to find herself being transported to an orphanage.

The elephant orphanage burns down and Ruby, trapped alone inside, is captured by poachers carrying dart guns.

Ruby is sold to the Fizzle Brothers Family Circus and walks in circles in a tent behind a despondent elephant named Fiona.

The circus goes bankrupt, Ruby is sold to Mack, and Aunt Stella coaxes Ruby out of a truck at the mall.

On the morning of Tuskday, Ruby pushes through a hole in the enclosure fence but gets stuck halfway through.

Aunt Akello uses her tusk to widen the fence hole and offers Ruby the choice to escape or return.

Ruby returns to the enclosure and participates in her Tuskday ceremony, where Stella is symbolically honored as Stella of the Park.

Ruby, a young elephant living at a wildlife sanctuary, tries to avoid her approaching Tuskday ceremony by hiding and sulking instead of preparing. When Jabori, her beloved caretaker from an African elephant orphanage, unexpectedly tracks her down and visits, Ruby is overwhelmed and breaks down crying for the first time. Urged by her uncles Ivan and Bob, Ruby finally opens up about her traumatic past — her mother's murder by ivory poachers, the burning of the orphanage, and her miserable journey through a circus and a mall cage, where Aunt Stella's love kept her alive. On the morning of Tuskday, Ruby tries to escape through a hole in the enclosure fence but gets stuck, and Aunt Akello uses her own tusk to free her and offers her a choice. Ruby chooses to return and face the ceremony, where Stella is symbolically inducted into the Park Herd as a final act of healing. The ceremony marks Ruby's true coming of age — not because her tusks have grown, but because she has learned to carry grief and love at the same time.

Ruby's journey from hiding to her Tuskday triumph.

Ruby resents the nickname Tusky, which is traditionally given to elephants whose tusks are beginning to grow in.

Park veterinarian T.J. easily locates Ruby hiding behind a tree and checks on Ruby's growing tusks.

Ruby explains that her two uncles are not elephants but a gorilla named Ivan and a stray dog named Bob.

Julia brings Bob to the enclosure wall and Ruby and Julia exchange happy greetings at Canine Corner.

Ruby poses a riddle to Ivan and Bob — what is as big as an elephant but weighs nothing? Her shadow.

Ruby remembers how Aunt Stella asked her every night what had amazed her and what had made her proud.

Jabori is brought into the sanctuary's private walled-off enclosure and Ruby joyfully snatches his hat and throws it in the air.

Ruby tells Ivan and Bob about being born on the African savanna to her mother Bishara, with her brother Reth and grandmother nearby.

Ruby describes her closest friend Gichinga, a cattle egret who rode on her back and made music with her.

Ruby falls into a mud puddle on the savanna and gets stuck; good humans rescue her with ropes.

Ruby's herd discovers the bones of an elephant whose tusks are missing and stops to touch them gently with their trunks.

Ruby arrives at the elephant orphanage enclosure and Jabori, her new caretaker, soothes her with laughter and constant humming.

Ruby is welcomed into the group of orphaned baby elephants with trumpets and nuzzles.

Ruby remembers a nightly game with Jabori in which she stole his hat and Odongo the hedgehog buried it.

Ivan and Bob cry after hearing Ruby's full story, and Ivan admits it may finally be time to talk about Stella.

From resenting her nickname Tusky to posing riddles with Ivan and Bob at Canine Corner, Ruby's daily life at the sanctuary is shaped by the friends and family who love her. A joyful private reunion with Jabori inside the sanctuary's walled enclosure opens the door to Ruby recounting her past in full, beginning with her birth on the African savanna and her unlikely friendship with a cattle egret named Gichinga. Secondary but essential moments — being rescued from a mud puddle, the herd's discovery of tusk-less elephant bones, and Jabori's patient, humming care at the orphanage — paint a fuller picture of the forces that shaped Ruby. Stella's enduring influence surfaces through Ruby's memory of the nightly questions Stella asked her, planting the seeds of elephant wisdom Ruby will draw on at her Tuskday ceremony. The pool closes with Ivan and Bob weeping after hearing Ruby's story, and Ivan finally admitting it may be time for him to talk about Stella too.

The bonds of friendship that carry Ruby through her story.

Ruby privately confesses that she secretly hates her tusks, though no one at the sanctuary knows this.

Ruby tries and fails to explain to Aunt Laheli why she feels so ambivalent about her growing tusks.

Ruby reveals that Aunt Stella, the elephant who loved and raised her in the mall, died before they could be relocated.

Aunt Laheli assures Ruby that everything she will need for her Tuskday ceremony is already in her heart.

Ruby recalls Stella describing her longing to walk with a herd again, and Ruby promises Stella they will have a herd someday.

Ruby notices a hole in the enclosure fence and privately considers using it to escape and avoid Tuskday.

Ruby hears a man calling her African name — not Ruby, but Duni — before she recognizes Jabori at the visitors' area.

Ruby's mother warns a young Ruby that the smell of humans is the smell of danger.

The herd grows desperate as a severe drought strips the savanna of food and water.

Ruby watches the other orphaned elephants go out each day and return happy, making her yearn to join them.

Ruby smells smoke from inside her enclosure, breaks free, and discovers the orphanage is burning with no caretakers in sight.

Ruby is transported across the sea in a dark, dung-filled crate below deck, terrified and seasick.

Aunt Akello reveals that her own mother and grandmother were also killed by ivory poachers, and she still has nightmares.

Ruby delivers her Tuskday speech, declaring that growing up means taking care of others the way others have cared for her.

Bob, Ivan, and Ruby gather to exchange Aunt Stella stories and share memories of her until the sun sets.

From the moment Ruby privately confesses she hates her tusks to the final evening of shared Stella stories, this pool captures the emotional turning points that drive Ruby's growth. Early revelations — the news of Stella's death, Aunt Laheli's quiet wisdom, and Stella's aching longing for a herd — establish the emotional stakes before Ruby has found the words to explain them. Ruby's backstory unfolds through a series of escalating shocks: her mother's warning about humans, the herd's desperate drought, the burning orphanage, and a terrifying sea crossing in a crate. The decisive turning point arrives when Aunt Akello reveals that her own mother and grandmother were also destroyed by ivory poachers, forging a bond of shared grief that finally helps Ruby understand she is not alone in her pain. Ruby's Tuskday speech and the sunset gathering of Stella stories mark the culmination of her transformation — from a young elephant hiding behind a tree to one who faces grief with courage and gratitude.