This film tells the story of John Reuel Tolkien, English writer, poet, philologist and author of many stories, including most famously The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. It describes the importance of the rural English West Midlands, where Tolkien grew up, in shaping his literary imagination and how the ancient northern languages he studied and taught throughout his life influenced his writing. These factors stimulated him to provide a context in which his own, invented languages might be spoken-an imaginary land called Middle-earth.

Accounts of the origins of The Hobbit and of The Lord of the Rings, and the phenomenal success that Tolkien somewhat reluctantly enjoyed when taken up by the counter-culture of the 1960s are included.