A wealthy and kind-hearted gentleman has all he could ever ask for: a loving wife and a most beautiful daughter who was kind and gentle. The three of them live happily in an opulent mansion on a hill overlooking the town. Life, however, is not always predictable and the man's wife died, leaving the man a widower and his daughter without a mother. A year later the man marries once again with a new woman, who brings along her two plain-looking, socially awkward daughters who, along with their mother, possess cruel and selfish hearts. They resent the man's girl for her beauty and her kind nature. When the man leaves on a business trip, the woman and her two daughtersturn onthe poor girl, forcing her into a life of drudgery and hard work. They kick her out of her own room and make her sleep on a straw mat in the kitchen, force her into wearing rags and wait on them hand and foot. As she sleeps by the fireside, she is constantly covered in ashes from the hearth and the Stepmother and her two daughters nickname the girl, "Cinderella." However, Cinderella realizes she has a Fairy Godmother living in the snowglobe in her kitchen. Life turns around for the girl the day a grand ball is announced in which the prince will choose his bride. The Stepmother and her two daughters are invited, and the Stepmother takes her two daughters into town to buy them new gowns. Cinderella wishes to go, but the Stepmother refuses and orders her to help her daughters prepare for the ball. Once the two Stepsisters are ready, Cinderella asks again to go to the ball, but the Stepmother refuses, unless Cinderella can sort a dish of lentils before they depart. With the help of her Fairy Godmother, she almost succeeds, but the Stepmother finds one lentil on the floor and refuses to allow Cinderella to go with them to the ball. After her Stepmother and her two Stepsisters abandon her, Cinderella is provided with a magnificent gown and a glittering coach and sets off for the ball, with a warning from the Fairy Godmother to leave before midnight or else the magic will cease and everything will return to normal. Cinderella attends the ball and wins the heart of the Prince, who up until then had refused to wed until he found a woman he truly loved. When midnight strikes, Cinderella flees through the palace gardens, leaving one glass slipper behind in the rush. The Prince vows to search the kingdom to find the girl whose foot fits the slipper, as he will marry no other. When the Prince arrives at Cinderella's house, the Stepmother orders her into the attic so as not to spoil her own daughters' chances. The elder Stepsister tries the shoe, but her foot is too fat; the younger Stepsister's foot is too small. But the Prince hears Cinderella singing and demands to see her. The shoe fits her foot perfectly, but to make sure it is not a coincidence, Cinderella brings forth the other slipper to prove who she is. The Prince and Cinderella are married; Cinderella's father returns for the wedding, but she does not reveal how she suffered at her Stepmother's hands, and instead forgives her two Stepsisters, and marries them to two gentlemen of the palace court. Cinderella and the prince are married and they livehappily ever after.
