One day, the Tsar called his three sons to him and instructed them to fire arrows into the air at random and marry whichever female picked the arrow up. The oldest brother’s arrow lands by a nobleman’s daughter. The second brother’s arrow lands by a merchant’s daughter. The youngest son, Ivan, fired his arrow into the air, but it went into a swamp and landed next to a frog, which he is obliged to marry.

As it turns out, the frog is Vasilisa the Wise, and she shames the other brides by magically accomplishing tasks during the night when the Tsar puts the three brides-to-be to the test. When the Tsar hosts a ball to test the dancing skills of his daughters-in-law, she puts drops of wine into her left sleeve, swan bones into her right, and dances a lake and flock of swans into existence!

Ivan goes home, finds her frog skin and destroys it. This is a mistake, which obliges Vasilisa to turn into a swan and fly to the estate of Koshchei the Deathless. In his search for Vasilisa, Ivan is given a magic reel of cotton, which leads him to the witch Baba Yaga’s cottage, but not before he has spared the life of a bear, a drake, and a pike. Baba Yaga tells Ivan that Koshchei’s death is on the point of a needle, which is inside an egg, which is inside a duck, which is inside a hare, contained within a chest, which rests in a tall oak! When Ivan finds the tree, the bear appears and uproots the tree, causing the chest to fall and break open. Ivan’s hare tears the other hare apart, and the drake seizes the duck. This however, causes the duck to drop the egg into the sea, but the pike retrieves it. Ivan breaks open the egg in front of Koshchei, snaps the needle and frees Vasilisa from the spell. They all live happily ever after!