The book opens with an angry father trying to prevent his young son from crossing a river. The son does of course do just this and enters a fantasy forest that seemingly only he can see. He encounters a talking bear but of course is not believed on his return. There is something in his father's reaction that tells him he knows more than he is letting on and Steven returns with dangerous consequences. The novel tells a peculiar tale of the fantasy forest of how it came to be and most especially focuses on the relationship between boy and bear and a fathers anguish and search for a missing son. There are more twists and turns than an agile snake as the plot unfolds.