What is a summary of the short-story, Plautus: A Memoir, from the collection, Only the Animals: Stories?

Plautus: A Memoir tells the story of a literary tortoise, searching for both complete solitude and perfect companionship, only to find her death in space. Along the way, she encounters famous literary figures, ranging from Virginia Woolf to Alexandra Tolstoy to George Orwell. "I, the Elephant, Wrote This" jumps ahead thirty years to the Mozambique Civil War, telling the story of an elephant herd dedicated to preserving the stories of their ancestors.