A compassionate eight-year-old girl who prefers a battered wooden doll is swept to a distant island where toys and dolls come to life; she explores a dolls' society with a royal palace, confronts authority, and is imprisoned alongside her wooden companion. She tends a baby, lives in a real dolls' house, helps plan and execute an escape, and becomes involved in pursuit, rescue attempts, a battle and a siege that end with the captor's defeat and order restored. The narrative emphasizes kindness, loyalty and the imaginative stakes of childhood play.