The first chapter of the classic Tolkien trilogy... Once upon a time...

Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), a young Hobbit who lives a peaceful life in Bag End, is sent on an important quest. In the past, the Dark Lord Sauron forged a Ring with which he could rule the Middle Earth and enslave its people. Although an alliance of humans, elves and dwarves defeated him, the Ring was never destroyed, allowing Sauron to survive and slowly recuperate over several millennia. About 3000 years after, Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) found the Ring and kept it for sixty years. But the Ring holds a dark power and soon started to exerte its influence to Bilbo.

The day when Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday, he decides that it is time for him to leave the Shire for living a new adventure. The evil power of the Ring, which he calls "My Precious", affected and tired him throughout the decades. Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian Mc Kellen), a long-time wizard friend, manages to convince Bilbo to pass the Ring onto Frodo, his cousin, who must destroy it once and far all and throw it down into the fires of Mount Doom in the dark land of Mordor, where it was forged.

When heated in a fire, the Ring indeed wore this glowing inscription : "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul", which translated means "One Ring to Rule them all, One Ring to Find them. One Ring to Bring them all, and in the Darkness Bind them."

The Fellowship of the Ring is formed. Frodo is joined by Gandalf, his best friend Sam (Sean Astin), Merry (Dominic Monaghan), Pippin (Billy Boyd), the humans Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Boromir (Sean Bean), Legolas the Elf (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli the dwarf (John-Rhys Davies.) The efforts of the Fellowship to thwart Sauron just begin...