Nisa is a spirited girl living in a South African village.
Her best friend is the dragleon, a magical creature with strange powers. She doesn't act like a dragon at all and changes colours like a chameleon. She can also grant wishes.
Nisa's other best friend is Nathi, who never ceases to amaze her as he gets about in a chair with wheels on it, because his legs don't work. Nathi needs to do things for himself so he learns to fish, and gets very good at it.
A scorpion haunts Nisa's room at night; but something much bigger than scorpions and far more dangerous to children is haunting the whole village. Dogs are going missing, driver ants have moved in and the rains seem to be falling elsewhere.
The dragleon's got elephants in her acacia woods and the villagers are surrounded by vicious thorns. Nisa's snake escapes and causes chaos. And the school bully goes missing. The big lake up in the hills is about to burst its banks, which doesn't bode well for anyone living downstream. Except for the crocodiles, which look forward to it all with relish.
Is the dragleon able to save the day? What has happened to the bully? And what did Nathi wish for, exactly?
As one problem after another pops up, Nisa and the dragleon have their hands full in this enchanting, exciting, funny and at times frightening modern fairytale, of life in all its many forms around an African village.