"In the snoozing town of Pipper-on-Struck, just past the first bloom of day, something came out of the well. Many things went into it- pennies, pails, the occasional unlucky fly, but not many things came out."
"It had bottle blue eyes, red cheeks, and a mouth set askew by confusion. First, rosy fingers appeared, gripping the mossy stone. Then, the thing hauled itself up, quite wet and dressed very strange. It rested by the side of the well."
John Button is a plain man, a changeling taken in by Old Nan and raised to be "proper." He hides his dreams, which no Struckians have, and his ability to see fairies, which would frighten the townsfolk, and alarm Minister Dan. But when a fairy prince crawls out of John's well, and sets the town alight with mischief, in search of the maiden True Love, whom John just cannot stop dreaming about - everything will hang askew, like a drunk goblin - and John will have to deal with the fact that he is a fairy...