The self-effacing hero of the beautiful animated rale, shepherd Elzeard Bouffier, is a man of few words but great determination single-handedly he plants and nurtures a forest of thousands of oak trees, changing his and surroundings into a thriving oasis The narrator's fascination with the man and his mission leads him to return time and again to the mountains, where he sees the wind-swept, forsaken landscape gradually transformed into green fields and meadows, thriving villages and prosperous farmland, surrounded by Bouffier's incredible forest