Max is eleven when he disappears while playing in the garden and suddenly finds himself somewhere else - in the house of the mysterious woman Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ, who tells him about a vanished village. Max is supposed to bring back its inhabitants, who have made themselves guilty and therefore live in exile in the land of shadows and in the desert. He is supposed to remind them of the good things they have done so that they can finally return to their village. So Max sets off on his journey, meets the fish in the puddle and strange shadowy creatures, becomes quite small in between and fortunately grows up again quickly, and also meets Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ again and again, who helps him with everything...