Scottish Borders schoolboy, Stevie Scott, befriends Maisie Wu, a new girl in his class, who comes from China, after she gets teased. He saves her from drowning in the River Tweed, but they emerge in mythological China where, as White Tiger and Hua Mei, or Pretty Flower, they encounter talking animals and hungry ghosts must undertake a dangerous mission to retrieve the Blue Dragon’s magical red pearl and golden staff, stolen by Monkey King, if they are to return to Peebles in Scotland.