In a faraway kingdom, a noble, rich man lives a happy life with his faithful wife and his beautiful daughter. Unfortunately, his wife soon falls gravely ill and dies a short time after, leaving his daughter motherless. The man marries again, choosing for a wife a woman with two daughters, who, like their mother, have wicked and cruel hearts. When the man leaves on a business trip, the stepmother and stepsisters take away his daughter's fine clothes and bedroom and treat her as a servant in her own house. She's forced to sleep on a straw mat by the fireplace surrounded by ashes and cinders; for this they call her "Cinderella". Not far away at the palace, the prince had come of age and faces difficulty finding a suitable wife. The king plans a great ball to take place at the palace, inviting all the single young ladies from the kingdom where his son will be able to choose a wife. With the help of her fairy godmother, Cinderella attends the ball looking beautiful and there she dances with the prince, never telling him her name. When she remembers her godmother's warning to leave the ball before midnight, she runs away as fast as she can from the palace. She leaves behind a single glass slipper that'll be the prince's only way to find the girl he'd fallen in love with that night.