In 1930, young Crispin (7&1/2) disobeys his parents by entering the forest and climbing the towering great White Pine tree he can see from a window in his home. A few days later he discovers that, to save the great tree from a galloping deadly disease, he must set out on a quest, which he has only two days left to achieve. Crispin receives help and guidance from a wolf, a falcon, and a young man who drives a Pierce Arrow. The wicked Archduke Axel, the so-called “Leopard of Tryce,” continually threatens to prevent Crispin from saving the great tree. In a race against time the boy and his companion, Blight, careering around the county in the Pierce Arrow, try to follow cryptic clues that the Leopard of Tryce has devised in order to insure that the time will run out, and the tree come down