Schoolboy Kay Harker is on his way home for Christmas. The train journey to his home at Seekings is uneventful until he is joined in the carriage by two 'clergymen' who con him out of some money with a trick.
As the train heads into a tunnel Kay sees that the clergymen have the heads of wolves, but he believes he imagined it as the train emerges from the tunnel and they appear to be clergymen again.
Caroline Louisa is waiting at the station to greet him, but as he walks through the station he chances upon an old Punch and Judy man who warns him that "the wolves are running". The man, Cole Hawlings, entrusts Kay with a small green box called the 'Box of Delights'.
Little does Kay know that this is the start of a magical adventure filled with danger. The first adventure occurs when Kay delivers Cole's message of "the wolves are running" to King Arthur's camp....