Based on the novel by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, a merchant must give up one of his three daughters, or he will lose his life. Beauty sacrifices herself and so the story continues.
The miller Hanz Franz has bragged to one and all that his daughter Elsa can spin straw into gold. The poor girl is spirited away by the Royal Tax Collector Lord Karsch and locked in a room in the palace of the King.