A knight-errant named Lancelot journeys through a town where he walks into an empty though welcoming house to get some rest. He befriends a household cat that prefers to keep mum and snuggly warm. Sensing danger, Lancelot persists in his questions until the furry “sphinx” tells him the sad story of his beloved masters — the archivist Charlemagne and his daughter Elsa. It will soon be four hundred years since their town was taken over by a dragon. The dragon has imposed many taxes on his subjects. Every year he picks a girl to wed. And the town gives her away “without a meow”. He takes her to his cave where she dies of horror and disgust. This time, the dragon has chosen Elsa.

Lancelot challenges the dragon to a fight and meets the townspeople who’ve never known freedom — a populace of perfectly content minions that look and act like “venerable citizens”. He also gets to know “His Excellency Mister Dragon” who’s not your ordinary reptile that breathes fire. The dragon appears before Lancelot as an average, sentimental “man of no rank”, “a boy next door”. He uses his three heads to swap them around as he pleases, revealing a different side of himself with every transformation. He knows his people are abominable — he “carved them up with his own hand” and has full control over them.

Lancelot defeats the dragon but he himself is mortally wounded. In a year’s time, having overcome death, Lancelot returns, only to find out that the town’s Burgomaster has become the next dictator, “His Excellency President of the Free City”, hailed as “the dragon slayer”. Worse yet, the Burgomaster is about to marry Elsa, the girl that Lancelot has saved from the dragon and promised to love for the rest of his life. Grievous and disappointed, Lancelot finds strength to confront the seemingly hopeless situation. After four hundred years of slavery, killing the dragon in a battle is only the beginning…