The bucket beside Taban's house is full of Madam Mosquito's larvae, and it's lesson time. “Bite, bite, bite!” she instructs. “The uncovered parts are the easiest to get at.” Weeks later, she and her brood arrive at Taban's house as the family sleep. “We feast tonight!” Horror strikes when her youngest is killed. Never mind – there’s an uncovered body nearby. We see the malaria parasite passing from Madam Mosquito to Taban, who spends the rest of the night scratching.

Taban, fed up mending his fishing equipment, takes down the family's newly hung mosquito net to go and catch supper. What a load of nonsense about malaria – and those nets are insufferable to sleep under! Two weeks later, Taban has a high temperature and collapses. His wife Sara takes him to the health clinic where he tests positive for malaria and is given a course of treatment, only to relapse when he stops taking it before the end of the course.

Taban learns the hard way, as always, but his story ends with recovery and a final acknowledgement of the value of nets – much to his wife and son's relief. At the health clinic they see a very sick child, but her parents have brought her here in time, and she too recovers from malaria. Sara, pregnant, is given a course of tablets to protect her unborn child. With treated nets hung throughout the village, Madam Mosquito and family fly off into the moonlight.