In the Viking village of Berk, where dragon attacks are a daily danger, a young outcast named Hiccup—the awkward, inventive son of the village chief, Stoick the Vast—desperately wants to prove himself as a dragon slayer. During a raid, he shoots down a mysterious and feared dragon species called the Night Fury, but no one believes him. Determined to prove his worth, Hiccup finds the injured dragon in the forest. But instead of killing it, he bonds with it—naming it Toothless—and learns that dragons are not the mindless beasts his people believe them to be. As their friendship deepens, Hiccup discovers that the dragons are being forced to raid villages by a massive, monstrous dragon that lives in a hidden nest. Torn between loyalty to his village and his newfound understanding of dragons, Hiccup must find the courage to stand against tradition and unite humans and dragons before everything he loves is destroyed.