Grisha the dragon is born in the Black Forest in 1803, the last year any dragon was born, and while young he was trapped by the emperor's sorcerer, and turned into a teapot, which was frustrating but kept him alive while magic and other dragons were disappearing--until one day he meets Maggie, a poet's daughter, and the two of them set out to discover what happened to all the other dragons.

As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and his best friend, fourteen-year-old Ellen finds her relationship with each of them changing.