The mouse and his child are wind-up toys forever joined at the hands. Purchased as Christmas toys, the dancing tin mice are to be brought out only during the holidays. After being smashed by a heavy vase, their mechanism breaks and they are discarded, separated from the doll house where they lived and the toy elephant that the child calls "mother" (much to her chagrin). ,The father and son mice are found by a tramp who repairs them, winds them up, and leaves them on a bridge.Thus begins the suspenseful journey that is heartbreaking, harrowing, and ultimately joyful as the mice seek what seems at first to be impossible: independence (self-winding) and the way back home.