Childhood friends Toma and Nuk tend to play when they're not working, just like they did when they were children together. When they find the body of a dead knight in the woods, they know it's no game, and try to do what they can for the poor man's body. They find something else while they're burying the knight, something far more mysterious, and special. When their new find turns out to be a dragon egg, Toma decides to help the animal, befriending it and taking care. He and Nuk have no idea what it will take to keep their new charge, and themselves, safe. Can they find a way to stay together and keep the dragon alive?

Toma is on his way to being a dragon knight; literally. He and Nuk follow the knight Horace to the king's camp, and along the way, Toma learns to admire and desire Horace, even as he bonds with his baby dragon. Life as a squire isn't all fun and games, though, as Toma discovers when he starts his training. He's bruised and battered, but not broken, and when he starts to ride his dragon, Herman, he finds a joy he's never imagined. Will he find even more than that with Horace, before harsh reality intrudes?