This is a tale from the life of a lively and mischievous, yet independent, young monkey king, named Sun, who discovers ancient writing on an iron bridge behind a waterfall. Being unable to read, he realizes that he and his band of monkeys know little about the world, and he sets out to find a teacher leaving them, for the time being, to fend for themselves.


Sun travels the wide ocean on a tiny raft tossed by waves, until he ultimately washes up on a foreign shore. After years of search, he finds a master who teaches him the art of magic-and the magical art of reading. Having mastered the art of magic, he is able to fly back to his kingdom to teach his subjects what he has learned of the world, as well as how to read.