Pinguel, a titan, was saved from the wolves who killed his mother by Cliffkin, an old sorcerer blat living in the Deep Forest on one side of the Cold Mountains. Pinguel learns language quicker, is much more curious, and does not want to learn invisibility to survive as do the blats. But one day, an owl of Deep Forest tells Pinguel the world is in danger and he must leave in order to save the blats and the Forest. His father, Cliffkin, gives him the Ant Bell which Pinguel is to use in times of extreme danger. In the company of an eccentric wolf and the owl, Pinguel leaves on his long journey out of the Deep Forest. In the city of the Lord Duke Pinchie du Henderson the travellers find that a number of Blats are to be executed and plan a daring escape, with the help of a family of hawks. Pinguel is to continue the quest to find Hugo, the human child who is a friend of blats and other creatures...Hugo lives on the Orestea, an ocean-going liner. All the Blats of the Deep Forest will be able to find refuge there. Saved from nearly freezing to death on the Cold Mountains by ringing the Ant Bell and finding himself in tunnels within the mountains, Hugo eventually continues his journey.