An impoverished merchant, decided to sell a precious painting of his deceased wife, wanders into a fairy-tale castle at night, where he loses his painting and is given lavish gifts of clothes and jewelry for his two vain daughters. He then picks a rose himself for his youngest, Beauty. He is caught by the lord of the castle, a terrible monster, who sets a condition that the merchant either returns or one of his daughters voluntarily comes as a sacrifice for his father.