Uncle Henry has been ordered by his doctor to take a vacation from hisKansas farm to Australia. He and his niece Dorothy Gale are aboard a steamship traveling there when they are caught in a fierce storm and separated. Dorothy is tossed overboard in a large poultry crate along with Billina, a yellow hen that was also on the ship. Dorothy and Billina wash ashore and pick something to eat from a lunch pail tree. She guesses that they are in a fairy country because lunch pails do t rmally grow on trees and animals like Billina do t talk, but it's t Oz because that country has seashore. They come across a message inscribed in the sand: BEWARE THE WHEELERS ! Soon they meet these gaudily dressed, loud-yelling creatures who have wheels instead of hands and feet, and roll around on all fours. Dorothy and Billina climb a rocky mountain to escape them and find a door carved into its side. Having found the key by the door, they open it and find Tik-Tok, a round copper mechanical man whom they activate by winding up all three of his clockwork motors with the key like a wind-up toy.