A fairy couple tries to steal a man's shadow. Another takes a man's wife. And, yet another, claims a retired police chief, braided a horse's mane! "The little people." You can shrug them off as superstition, but what explains their perennial appeal. John Walker learned, as a child, the difference between a fairy tale and the fairy faith from his grandmother, who told him that if your heart is open, the fairies and their fabled world can be seen in the landscape. In search of this ancient belief, Walker travels to the moors of England, the Highlands of Scotland and the sacred sites of Ireland and Cape Breton. He meets a storyteller who saves an ancient fair thorn bush from town developers, a painter who conjures up their magical features, and a Mikmaq elder who gives advice on how to understand the mysterious lot.