: Poisoned by shards of a magic mirror, the boy Kai gets to the Snow Queen. His named sister Gerda finds the boy and melts the fragments with the love of her pure heart.
Once upon a time there was an evil troll. Once he made a mirror in which everything good and beautiful was reduced to the utmost, and everything unfit and ugly appeared even brighter and seemed even worse. This terribly amused the troll, and his students ran around with a mirror. Finally, they decided to climb up to heaven and laugh at the Creator himself. They rose higher and higher, and suddenly the mirror fell out and broke into many fragments. The fragments scattered throughout the world. Some began to fall into people's eyes, and a person saw only bad things in each, while others hit people in the heart, and the heart turned into a piece of ice. The evil troll saw all this and laughed.
In a big city, two poor children lived in the neighborhood - Kai and Gerda. They loved each other like brother and sister. Both families grew flowers, and the children loved to sit near the bushes with roses.
Once, sitting near the bushes and reading a book, Kai cried out: something hit him in the eye and pricked in his heart. These were fragments of a diabolical mirror. Now Kai’s heart has turned into a piece of ice, and he began to see everything in a distorted form. Beautiful roses began to seem disgusting to him, and he mocked adults and rude them.
Winter came. Once Kai went to a large area to ride a sled. Suddenly there appeared a dazzling woman in white on a large sled - the Snow Queen. Kai tied his own to her sled and rolled. Soon they left the gates of the city. The snow queen wrapped Kai in her fur coat, kissed the boy, and he forgot about Gerda and all his family.
When Kai did not return home, Gerda cried a lot. She did not believe that Kai had died, and went in search of him. On the way, the girl came to an old sorceress who had a wonderful garden. The charms of the old woman made Gerda forget about everything, and she remained in the house with a wonderful garden, where it was always summer. But one day the girl saw roses that reminded her of the house, and remembered everything. She asked the flowers in the garden if they had seen Kai underground. Having received a negative answer, Gerda realized that Kai was alive.
Gerda soon met a big raven. The raven had a bride who lived in the palace. From her, the raven learned that the princess, a great smart girl, was getting married. The crows described the groom's appearance, and Gerda decided that this was Kai.
With the help of a raven and his bride, Gerda entered the palace, but the princess’s groom was not Kai. After hearing the story of the girl, the princess gave her a golden carriage with a coachman and servants, new shoes and beautiful clothes.
The robbers attacked Gerda in the forest. They killed the coachman and the servants, the girl was taken prisoner. The little robber, the ataman’s daughter, left Gerda at home. She showed Gerda her menagerie, which included the reindeer from Lapland and forest pigeons. Hearing Gerda’s story, forest pigeons said they saw Kai in the Snow Queen's sled on the way to Lapland. The little robber released Gerda with the Reindeer to his homeland.
The reindeer brought the girl to an old Lapland who gave a letter to an old Finnish woman living near the kingdom of the Snow Queen. Finca said that while Kai has fragments of a mirror in his heart and eye, he will not be the same, but Gerda will melt the ice with the force of her innocent children's heart. Alone came to the kingdom of the Snow Queen Gerd, the Reindeer could not accompany her there.
Blue from the cold, but not feeling it because of the kiss of the Snow Queen, Kai piled various figures from the ice. He wanted to add the word “eternity”, then the Snow Queen would give him all the light and a couple of new skates. Gerda rushed to Kai and melted the ice with hot tears. Kai cried, and a splinter fell out of his eye.
Kai and Gerda returned home. On the way, they met the Reindeer and drank the milk of his young wife, warmed up at the Finnish, visited Lapland. In the forest, they met a young robber who told that the raven had died and the crow remained a widow. The robber promised to visit them whenever possible. And at home they were waiting for two bushes, strewn with beautiful roses.
