Brian is always in trouble at school, and his home life is far from peaceful. His father is an alcoholic and his sister looks after him because his mother died when Brian was a baby. Brian often gets into a temper and runs away to a cave by the sea where he has happy memories. But there is something else in the cave: a creature, lonely and confused. Brian calls the creature 'Dragon', although it's not what most people might imagine a dragon to be. Together they visit another world where they find wonderful friends, but also deadly enemies. Brian's life is torn between the two worlds, and he begins to believe that, in the normal world at least, grown-ups can't be friends with dragons.