All his life, Wick has been raised in the brutal Harklights Match Factory and Orphanage, run by the monstrous Old Ma Bogey. But when he finds and rescues a tiny baby, small enough to fit inside an acorn, he is visited by the Hobs, a miniature race of people who are also caretakers of the forest. They are so grateful to Wick that they offer him the chance of a lifetime - to escape from Harklights and begin a new life with them in the wild...