On his 10th birthday, a young prince ventures into the swamp, a cursed place and the scene of the heroic exploits of the men in his line, whose tales have lulled him to sleep. One of these tales tells of his father, the king, defeating a terrible dragon when he was just 16. The young prince, though more fascinated by nature and plants than by the warrior arts, wants more than anything to live up to his father's standards. But in the heart of the swamp, he encounters what he at first takes to be the dragon of legend (and who is in fact no more than a debonair crocodile). The crocodile, with his failing eyesight, sees the armoured creature as a lost baby crocodile. This meeting between two people who don't understand each other and whom everything opposes will give birth to a beautiful story of friendship and bring to light a well-kept family secret.