Where do fairies, creatures of imagination, come from and how are their stories created, how are fairy tales made? A true wizard of the pen, Tolkien, reveals himself to us in an essay about fairy tales. In a vivid way, he introduces us to his stories from the "back door" and helps us detect and understand why people love fairy tales, why they seek to create their own reality through stories and beings created by their imagination.

The essay is accompanied by the novella Leaf by Niggle, which convinces us that the fairyland is all around us and its wonders are accessible to each one of us, as well as by the short play The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, where the reader is introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien's academic studies on the ancient English epic texts that were the sources of inspiration for his creation of the mythology of Middle-earth.