The morning of my fiftieth birthday found me, as the last twenty had, sneakily examining my chin in the looking glass, searching for a sign, any small sign, of a whisker. And, once again, as on the previous twenty birthdays, I found nothing. Absolutely nothing. It may seem strange to you that I was able to reach the age of fifty years and still have my face remain as smooth and hairless as a green melon, and you would be right. Many lads of my race...

Young Ven Polypheme and his friends find adventure--and a very angry dragon--when King Vandemere sends them afar to learn the cause of a dispute between two warring kingdoms.