During the absence of the tsar, his wife gave a birth to a daughter. The tsarina dies when the tsar returns home. He grieves, but a year passes, and a new tsarina appears in the palace. She is very beautiful, but cruel, wayward and envious. The tsarina has a magic mirror that talks to her. From year to year the mirror answers that there is no one more beautiful than the tsarina in the whole world. But years go by, and the tsarina is no longer young. But her stepdaughter, on the contrary, is growing up and becoming more and more beautiful. One day a mirror declares to the tsarina that she is beautiful, but there is one that is much more beautiful.