Unlike all the other bulls in his pasture, who enjoy bashing their heads together, Ferdinand, from an early age, is content to sit under his favourite tree and smell the flowers. As luck would have it, on the day when a group of 'talent scouts' from the local bullfighting arena turn up, he happens to sit on a bumblebee. This causes him to fly into a frenzy of chaotic motion which convinces them he is the perfect choice, and so he gets carted off to the bullfighting arena.