For years, the woodcarver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has enchanted the children of a quiet town by telling tales of a dragon that lives in the woods. His daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, finds these stories simply entertaining until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious ten-year-old boy without a family and a home. He claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliot. The strangest thing in the whole story is that this dragon looks just like the one in Mr. Meacham's tales.