The princess of Cambodia has to choose (don't we all) between a safe but boring life and a life of exciting risk. Aided by the splash of Ambrose the whale, she embarks on a quest which leads to encounters with a piratical whaling captain, a young sailor, a legion of miniature Vikings, an army of fighting squids, a great white whale (Moby Dick), and a war to liberate the Thrallbeggars (as the miniature Vikings are called) from being the snack food of the ocean, before she finds an answer. In all this, Ambrose is her indispensable friend.