The story begins in the Mossflower Wood, where a community of animals suffers under the tyranny of a ruling polecat named Verdauga Greeneyes.

When a mouse from the north by the name of Martin the Warrior travels to Mossflower Woods, he is captured and brought to the castle Kotir.

Martin and Gonff escape with help from the Corim (Council Of Resistance In Mossflower) and join with Young Dinny the mole on a quest to find Boar the Fighter, Badger Lord of Salamandastron.

Bella, a Corim leader and Boar's daughter, believed only her father could defeat Tsarmina and put an end to her cruel reign.

A shrew emerges and scares away the duo into the river, and introduces himself as Log-a-log Big Club, a former village leader, escaped oar slave, and currently a ferryman.

Boar introduces them to the hares that live in the mountain, and then reforges Martin's broken sword with metal from a meteorite, but is killed while fighting his mortal enemy Ripfang the searat who had attacked Salamandastron several times before.

They return to Mossflower Woods, where Martin kills Tsarmina and destroys Kotir by both flooding it and knocking over its walls with a ballista.