Father called his little son Misha to him and showed him a beautiful tortoiseshell snuffbox. On its cover was a city with golden houses, turrets and trees. The sun was rising over the city, from which pink rays scattered across the sky.

Dad said that the town is called Ding-Ding, touched the spring, and then music began to play in the snuffbox, and the sun began to move through the sky. When it went over the hill, the shutters in the houses closed, stars and a month shone in the sky, and "bluish rays stretched from the turrets."

Misha wanted to get into this town. He asked dad who lives there. He replied that the inhabitants of the city were bells, and he lifted the lid of the snuff box. Misha saw many bells, hammers and began to question his father how the snuffbox works. Dad suggested Misha think and guess for himself, only asked not to touch the spring - if it breaks, the music will stop playing.

Misha sat for a long time over the snuffbox and thought.

Meanwhile, music plays and plays; it’s all quieter and quieter, as if something clings to every note, as if something pushes one sound from another.

Suddenly, a door opened at the bottom of the snuff-box, a boy with a golden head and a steel skirt ran out and beckoned Misha to him.Misha ran to the door and was surprised: she had to fit him exactly in height. The bell boys were residents of the town in a snuffbox. They found out that Misha wants to visit them, and decided to invite him.

The bell-boy led Misha through the arches made of colorful embossed paper. Misha noticed that far ahead the arches were becoming very small, and told his guide that he would not even crawl through them.

Repeating “ding-ding-ding”, the bell-boy explained that from a distance all objects seemed small. Misha recalled how recently he wanted to draw a dad sitting away from his mother, but nothing came of it, because he did not know about the laws of perspective.

The bell boy began to laugh at Misha, who was annoyed, and he said that it was not good to get used to sayings, even as beautiful as “ding ding ding”. Now the bell-boy has become annoyed.

Finally, the boys entered the town. Misha saw that the bell-boys of different sizes were sitting in the houses, and thought that it seemed to him from afar, but in fact they are all the same. But the bell boy explained that they were really different. Big bells have a thicker voice, while small ones have a more sonorous voice. Then he rebuked Misha for laughing at his saying: “He knows a different saying, but knows more than anything else, and you can learn something from him.”

Misha was surrounded by bells and began to complain about his life. They have nothing to do, they can’t leave the town, and playing all day is very boring.

You can imagine what a whole century has been like, without doing anything, sitting in a snuffbox, and even in a snuffbox with music.

And the evil uncle mallets are pestering - they are walking around the city and tapping the bell boys.

Misha looked around and saw gentlemen on the street with thin legs and long noses. They walked and whispered: “Knock-knock-knock! Pick it up! Touch me! ” Misha went up to them and politely asked why they were bashing the poor bell-boys.

The uncle mallets answered that the warder ordered them to do this. The bell boys confirmed that they have a warden, Mr. Valik, but he is kind, he has been lying in a bathrobe on the couch all day and does not touch them.

Misha went to the overseer and saw many hooks on his robe. He turned over from side to side and hooked with these hooks uncles-hammers, and they knocked on the bell-boys. Misha asked Mr. Valik why he was doing this, but he, sentencing “Shura-Mura,” replied that he had nothing to do with anything.

Misha went on and saw a golden tent in which Princess Pruzhinka lay. She curled up, turned around, pushed the warden in the side and sentenced “zits-zits-zits”. Misha began to question her, and the princess explained: if she stopped pushing the overseer, he would not cling to the uncle-hammers, they would stop banging the bell-boys, and the music would cease.

Misha decided to check if the princess was telling the truth, and pressed her finger. The spring immediately developed, the roller twisted, the hammers rattled and everything fell silent. Misha remembered that dad asked not to touch the spring, he got scared and ...awoke.

The boy told his parents a wonderful dream. Dad praised his son that he almost understood the device of the snuff-box, and added that Misha would find out more when he began to study mechanics.