All Max wants to do with his life is make comics, and all his parents do is discourage him. His life takes a turn for the hopeful when a mysterious recluse, a Parisian comics veteran, buys a ruined chateau in the woods near Max's house. His appearance is echoed by the arrival of a mysterious peddler with a printing press in the medieval village of Max's comic, in which a monk is busily spinning a tale of Max's daughter Suzie, all grown up and an illustrator in her own right.