On her deathbed, the queen had made her husband promise that he would never marry anyone who wasn't as good looking as herself. (Gee, i wonder what she dies of? it vertainly made her a little odd at the end).

The king went mad, and when the princess heard of his intention to force her to marry him, set him a task that she thought would be impossible to accomplish. He was to make for her a dress made of spun gold (now we know what rumplestiltzkin was spinning all that straw for), one made of silver moonbeams, and one of stardust. He was also to get for her a coat of a thousand furs.

The king accomplished all this, and the princess was forced to run from him. She took with her only her magical dresses and her coat. She ran far away, ending up in a distant kingdom, where she befriended the prince, who got her a job in the palace kitchen.

Although she was plagued by nightmared of her father, she worked hard and was generally accepted, tho she looked odd because she never took that coat off for fear of being doscovered by someone who knew her father.

The prince was hosting a ball, and the princess, missing the festivities of the old days when the king was still sane, dressed herself in spun gold and went to the ball. She danced with the prince, who assumed by her royal ring that she was a princess,

The princess denied it, and ran in fear of discovery. She goes back to work in the kitchens, and time passes.

The prince throws another ball, and this time she attends in her dress of silver moonbeams. She stays until the prince asks her to marry him, then flees, unable to see anything but her father asking the same question.

She goes back to work in the kitchens again, to find that the prince is being strongly advised to marry. He is to give his answer at a ball being held that night. The princess dresses in her gown of stardust, but sees the prince dancing with another princess before she enters the ballroom. She runs, rejoining the kitchen help with her dress hidden under the coat.

The princess realizes that she may never have another chance to marry the prince, whom she has fallen in love with. She is ordered to make the soup for the ball, and slips her ring into the Prince's serving.

He finds it and sends down to the kitchen for the person who made the soup. The princess stands before the rpince in her coat, and he asks her again to marry him. She agrees, and they live happily ever after.