Once upon a time, and long ago, Sir Henry, a melancholic knight-errant who always looked for happiness elsewhere, went on his way with Ponderer, his horse (he talks) and Manfred his hound (he can talk too). Happening on Alisane, the captive maiden of a dragon, Sir Henry is accidentally able to kill the dragon and Alisane, who had hoped for a parfit gentil knight and who finds that Henry is something of a compromise- is his reward. As they travel on toward Tintagel, there's a wild boar, a sorcerer, a joust- and a dying knight leaves him Meghan who supplements the virtues of Alisane. He builds a house for the winter for this entourage; Alisane bears him a child; but Henry is still restive and he goes off questing again- only to learn that his real and mortal enemy is himself.... That never-never land of wistful whimsy and demure humor which have won him a perennial public and which only a few may care to eschew.