Frodo is a simple hobbit living a simple life in the Shire, that wonderful country where the most harrowing decision to make is what to eat for second-breakfast. There are always tales of adventure and danger coming in from the rest of Middle Earth, out in the lands of humans and dwarves and elves and orcs, but the hobbits make sure to keep themselves separate from those unseemly types. That is, until Frodo's quirky Uncle Bilbo, famous for having once left the Shire and having had an incident with a dragon, disappears on his eleventy-first birthday and leaves Frodo with only a strange and foreboding ring. Seventeen years later, the wise wizard Gandalf returns to the Shire and informs Frodo that the ring is the One Ring coveted by the Dark Lord Sauron, who would do anything to take up his possession once more and use its power to destroy Middle Earth. Now Frodo, his best friend Sam, and their friends Merry and Pippin must flee the Shire chased by Sauron's terrifying Nazgúl and hope to reach the elven refuge of Rivendell. From there Frodo finds himself leading the Fellowship of the Ring, the group of nine tasked to take the ring to the dark land of Mordor to destroy it. But things do not go according to plan, and Frodo finds himself on a much more dangerous quest yet.