The story starts with Norang, a Korean girl, searching for her best friend, a cat called Yoghurt. She follows his paw prints to an enclosed building site with a big ‘Danger’ sign on the outside. The paw prints go over the fence and into the site so after some hesitation, where she considers what the dangers might be, she squeezes under the fence and goes in.

Aka, a Japanese boy arrives outside the site ‘on a mission’. He is a ‘hero’ ready to fight the ‘monsters’ who have destroyed his favourite playing area within the site and acts out his challenge as he imagines stepping on a secret switch and the ceiling closing in on him and then being electrified by the wired fence before making his assault across the fence and away into the shadows

Inside the building site Aka sees Norang looking for Yoghurt and follows her; both frightened of the shadows of the site. When Norang realises that Aka is there they are initially wary of each other, waiting for a sign of friendliness. They exchange sounds and start to play a kind of hide and seek but Aka frightens Norang and she backs off. Aka creates a hand play game, which Norang responds to and they introduce themselves. They don’t speak the same language and they are still not that friendly. Norang returns to looking for Yoghurt but Aka follows her.

Aka comes across a pile of crates covered in plastic and believes he has found Yoghurt. He calls Norang but when she investigates she finds not her cat but a ‘monster’. Despite being afraid, Aka jumps in to attack the monster only to find that the monster is in fact an English boy called Blue. Blue tries desperately to rebuild his ‘command centre’ but comes under attack from the other two who try and ‘catch’ him. He protests that they shouldn’t be in the building site and that there is a sign telling them to keep out but Aka is not listening; he has his monster. Norang however, recognises the look in Blue’s eyes and tries to comfort him by singing tenderly. They start to communicate, each speaking their own languages, Blue explaining that this is his command centre where he comes to control everything (and writing down what the others say and at what time), Aka telling of the destructive monsters, and Norang describing Yoghurt.

Blue gives Norang a map of the site and together the three of them go exploring. Aka rushes to the spot where he used to play only to find that ‘his’ tree has been chopped down. He is upset and angry so Norang tells him a story about the tree that her grandmother used to tell her.

The story is about a blind man who foretells that a baby is to come from the sky. The baby, ‘Oori ai’ grew up fast and could do great things (like ride a horse at five). Soon the king hears of ‘our baby’ and feels undermined so he demands that Oori ai is brought to him. The old man hides Oor ai so the king grabs a villager and threatens to cut off his head. Oor ai steps forward and tells the king to take him instead. Before he is taken off, he tells the people of the village that he has hidden something under the big tree that will save the world. He asks the people to keep the secret before he was taken away.

Norang finishes the story by saying “ So this is where that big tree was”. They look at the tree stump and decide to dig and find the secret. They dig and dig but find nothing.

Aka says that the monsters cut down the tree but Blue shows him that it is a digging machine. He says that the monsters are outside the perimeter of the fence and that they are safe inside. They dig a much deeper hole and decide that if they dig further they will get to Brazil, which is ‘a perfect place’.
Aka “ Much better than this world …. We will be free to go everywhere and play and play.”
Blue “Nobody to disturb everything. Peace.”
Norang “ They sing. No-one shouts loud. No-one says mean things.”

They jump into the hole and ‘go to Brazil’ which is everything they want it to be. Eventually they realize that the imaginary food is not filling them up, that it is dark and that Norang still hasn’t found Yoghurt. Blue draws a Yoghurt trap and Norang has a scrap of food, which they use as bait.

They fall asleep. Norang awakes just as dawn is breaking. She thinks that she hears her kitten up a high crane and so tries to climb up to the top but loses her footing and things fall. The others hear this clattering and try to find ways of rescuing her. They all end up at the top of the crane and are scared. They close their eyes to try to overcome their fear and when they open them again they look out and see the beauty of the city from such a height. They look down and realise that they are in danger. Aka starts to go down but Norang stops him and gives them all seeds, which they symbolically release into the air as the dawn’s light shines.