One New Year's Eve, just before midnight, a stork, a snowman, a red seahorse, two children, and two pirates gather around a fireplace. Who are they? Where do they come from? And most importantly: what are they looking for around the fireplace? A barrel of laughter medicine, an underground witch, an unspeakable secret, two wise entomologists, a lost beetle, a balloon blower, a wind flower, and twelve ballad singers lead the heroes of the story into unheard-of dangers, wild chases, and unexpected adventures, from the soap bubble festival in China to the party of drunken ghosts, from the blue feathery cloud to the gray granite gorge. A hilarious adventure in haunted towers, secret harbors, infamous inns, mythical palaces, unexplored jungles, and stormy oceans. An adventure as tasty as whipped cream, as enchanting as fireworks, stranger than the whirl of dreams, more fantastic than the secret of the silver butterfly.