Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return. He becomes a thief for a band of dwarves and soon finds himself in the midst of a war with the evil goblins and wargs, and is forced to make a decision between the call of duty and the pull of the simple life.