Trapped behind the high walls of an austere orphanage in suburban paris, paul has only ever known one home. His chance to discover the great wide world comes when a bohemian couple, célestine and borel, take him back to their countryside home on a vast estate in sologne, where borel is the gamekeeper. Paul starts to explore his new home among the huge forests, misty ponds and fields, which all belong to the taciturn loner, count de la fresnaye, who paul soon discovers has a fractious relationship with borel due to the count's toleration of poachers on his estate. Borel relentlessly hunts down these welcome trespassers, particularly totoche, the most wily and elusive among them, who has befriended paul unbeknownst to his adoptive parents. In the heart of sologne, paul will learn about the forest, its mysteries and the complexities of life alongside totoche, but a heavier secret weighs down the estate as paul's arrival seems to be no accident...