Jack and his mother are the picture of poverty. They're starving and can't afford to eat or tend to the farm. Even the family goldfish is literally nothing but bones. Jack decides to sell the cow at the market. He is about to sell it to a butcher, but a stranger convinces him to buy magic beans instead. Jack's feels that he was cheated and punishes him for being so gullible. She throws the beans out the window where they are watered overnight by rain. In the morning, a tall vine has grown into the clouds. Jack climbs the beanstalk and encounters a giant and his giantess wife, who means to eat Jack. Jack narrowly escapes the wrath of the couple and takes with him the giant's treasures: a magical harp and a hen that lays eggs filled with coins.