The book is about a naughty boy, Nils Holgersson, who is turned into a tomte and has a wonderful adventure with geese. He makes lots of friends in the adventure and gets rid of the shortcoming of hurting animals and cultivates good character.

故事描写了一个名叫尼尔斯的小男孩的故事。他淘气，不爱上学，被小精灵变成了一个拇指大小的小人儿，并且在一只大雁背上飞行了八个月。他结识了很多好朋友，并且改掉了欺负小动物的坏毛病，培养了很好的品德。