Jonas, a little goat at a farmstead, discovers that his master plans to slaughter him for the Christmas feast. He swears to run away, something that has never been done. When Grandfather Mnyamana warns him that running from the knife is against goat culture, hence he should stay put, Jonas does not listen, and flees. He spends the night with runaway cows, manages to evade hunting baboons at the Terrible Forest, and on the following day, meets a herd, whose leader, Mkhulu, is a historian and dreamer, and he tells Jonas his journey is a spiritual one, his destination is the famed Domborembudzi mountain, where dwells wild goats, cousins of domesticated goats who fled after the Great Goat Man wars, and chose self-rule over domestication. He tells Jonas that he is the goat destined to emancipate goats from bondage to humans. Leaving for Domborembudzi Mountain, Jonas meets a cub named Jason, who accompanies him there. But when he arrives on Domborembudzi, his cousins, the wild goats, are mean to him. They put him on trial, accusing him of being a spy for his master. With the help of a seer, Sir Shimza the Fabulous, and the queen of the mountain, Queen Sir Mother, Jonas is absolved, and determined to be a royal descendent of Domborembudzi, hence eligible for the throne challenge, as the current ruler, Queen Sir Mother is old. The fight for the throne, called the Throne Battle, is fought between Jonas and a cruel goat, General Rubrik, whose ancestry is in question as it starts to emerge he might be a descendant of wolves. When General Rubrik realises that he can’t win the battle, he launches an incredible charge, a charge that results in the death of both fighters, but Queen Sir Mother sacrifices herself, and Jonas wins the battle and becomes king of the mountain.