Smash knew all about ogres. After all, despite his having a human mother, Smash was an ogre himself. Ogres were not only huge and horribly ugly, as Smash was; the were also so stupid they could hardly speak, and they spent most of their time fighting, destroying, and eating young girls.

So what was the doing here with seven assorted females looking to him to guide them and save them? Even in Xanth, where magic made anything possible, why should Tandy the Nymph trust him and seem fond of him? And how could all that high-flown conversation be coming out of his mouth?

But that, it seemed, was what he got for going to Good Magician Humfrey for an Answer- before he even knew what the Question was!

Summary:

Even by the bizarre standards of Xanth, they are a most unlikely pairing. Smash is a monstrous hybrid, half-human, half-ogre and Tandy is a delicate, fluttering nineteen-year-old beauty. The Good Magician Humphrey in his infinate, inscrutable wisdom has thrown the two of them together for their mutual salvation. Plagued by demons, sirens, dragons, and the terrifying Night Stallion, Smash and Tandy make their way through the shimmering jungles of Xanth. Time and again, they succeed in saving each other's lives, but can the ogre-man and the nymph-girl save their own souls?

In the magical land of Xanth, the Magician Humfrey has all the Answers. Unfortunately, he isn't always quite sure of the Questions. So the human girl Tandy is somewhat puzzled when Humfrey tells her that the Answer she seeks will be discovered by traveling with Smash the Ogre. Smash is even more perplexed. He didn't even have a Question, yet his Answer is the cryptic order "to seek the Ancestral Ogres." And he must pay for the unsolicited Answer by protecting Tandy on her quest.

The two mismatched companions set off on their assigned journey to find what they don't even know they seek. But along the way, complication after complication arises: Smash, after blundering into the clinging Eye Queue vines, acquires, much to his shame, intelligence and, worst of all, stops rhyming when he talks. And Tandy loses her soul in a hypnogourd.

In exchange for its return, Smash must promise to replace it with another... or forfeit his own!

Through the Goblin Lands and Birdland, into the regions of Air, Earth and Fire, and over the Gap Chasm, the two searchers range on their quest. But the dangers they face--including the fierce and magical Gap Dragon, and the seductive traps of the mysterious region known only as The Void--seem like nothing compared to the problem they must eventually solve: how to save Smash's soul? For there is only one way out--to get the great Night Stallion to nullify the deal. And he will not do so... unless they can defeat him in battle.