Prince Vladimir the Sun feasts in a grid with sons and a crowd of friends, celebrating the wedding of Lyudmila's youngest daughter with Prince Ruslan. In honor of the newlyweds, the hussar Bayan sings. Only three guests are not happy with the happiness of Ruslan and Lyudmila, three knights do not listen to the prophetic singer. These are Ruslan’s three rivals: the hero Knight Rogday, the bouncer Farlaf and the Khazar Khan Ratmir.
The feast is over, and everyone disperses. The prince blesses the young, they are taken to the bedchamber, and the happy bridegroom is already looking forward to amorous delights. Suddenly there was a thunder, a flash of light, everything was dark, and in the silence that came a strange voice sounded and someone soared and disappeared into the darkness. The awakened Ruslan is looking for Lyudmila, but she is not there, she is "kidnapped by an unknown force."
Struck by the terrible news of his daughter’s disappearance, the Grand Duke, enraged at Ruslan, calls on the young knights to go in search of Lyudmila and promises the one who finds and returns his daughter to marry Ruslan and, in addition, half the kingdom. Rogdai, Ratmir, Farlaf and Ruslan himself are instantly called to go look for Lyudmila and saddle their horses, promising the prince not to prolong the separation. They leave the palace and jump along the Dnieper banks, and the old prince looks after them for a long time and flies after them in thought.
Knights ride together. Ruslan languishes with longing, Farlaf boasts of his future exploits in the name of Lyudmila, Ratmir dreams of her hugs, sullen and silent to Rogdai. The day is approaching in the evening, the riders approach a crossroads and decide to leave, each trusting in their fate. Ruslan, devoted to gloomy thoughts, rides in step and suddenly sees a cave in front of him, in which fire shines. The knight enters the cave and sees in it an old man with a gray beard and a clear look, reading an ancient book in front of the lamp. The elder turns to Ruslan with a greeting and says that he has long been waiting for him. He reassures the young man, saying that he will be able to regain Lyudmila, who was kidnapped by the terrible wizard Chernomor, a longtime abductor of beauties living in the northern mountains, where no one has managed to penetrate. But Ruslan is destined to find the home of Chernomor and defeat him in the fray. The elder says that the future of Ruslan is in his own free will. The delighted Ruslan falls to the elder’s feet and kisses his hand, but suddenly a grunt appears again on his face. The wise old man understands the cause of the young man’s sadness and reassures him, saying that Black Sea is a mighty wizard who can bring stars from the sky, but powerless in the fight against inexorable time, and therefore his senile love is not terrible to Lyudmila. The elder persuades Ruslan to go to bed, but Ruslan languishes in anguish and is unable to fall asleep. He asks the old man to tell who he is and how he got to this region. And the old man with a sad smile tells his wonderful story.
Born in the Finnish valleys, he was a peaceful and carefree shepherd in his homeland, but he fell in love with the beautiful, but cruel and obstinate Naina. For six months he languished in love and finally opened to Naina. But the proud beauty indifferently answered that she did not like the shepherd. Feeling disgust at the usual life and activities, the young man decided to leave his native fields and go with a faithful retinue on a courageous voyage in search of battles, in order to earn the love of proud Naina with sworn fame. He spent ten years in battles, but his heart, full of love for Naina, longed for return. And so he returned to throw rich trophies at the feet of the arrogant beauty in the hope of her love, but again the indifferent maiden refused the hero. But this test did not stop the lover. He decided to try his luck with the help of magical powers, having learned powerful wisdom from the sorcerers living in his region, whose will everything is subject to. Deciding to attract Naina's love with the help of witching charms, he spent inconspicuous years in the teachings of sorcerers and finally comprehended the terrible secret of nature, learned the secret of spells. But evil rock pursued him. Called by his witchcraft, Naina appeared before him as a decrepit old woman, hunchbacked, gray-haired, with a shaking head. The terrified sorcerer learns from her that forty years have passed and today she is seventy. To his horror, the sorcerer was convinced that his spells had worked and Naina loved him. With trepidation, he listened to the love confessions of the gray-haired ugly old woman and, to top it off, learned that she had become a witch. The shaken Finn ran away, and after him the curses of the old witch were heard, reproaching him for unfaithfulness to his feelings.
Having escaped from Naina, the Finn settled in this cave and lives in it in complete solitude. Finn predicts that Naina will hate Ruslan, but he will be able to overcome this obstacle.
Ruslan listened to the elder’s stories all night, and in the morning, with a soul full of hope, gratefully hugging him goodbye and parted by the blessing of the wizard, he sets off on a journey in search of Lyudmila.
Meanwhile, Rogday rides “between the forest deserts”. He cherishes a terrible thought - to kill Ruslan and thereby free his way to Lyudmila’s heart. He resolutely turns the horse and rides back.
Farlaf, having slept all morning, dined in the forest silence by the stream. Suddenly he noticed that the rider was rushing right at him at full speed. Throwing lunch, weapons, chain mail, the cowardly Farlaf jumps onto the horse and flees without looking back. The horseman rushes after him and urges him to stop, threatening to "rip off" his head. Farlaf’s horse jumps over the moat, and Farlaf falls into the mud. Rogdai, who has flown up, is ready to defeat his opponent, but sees that this is not Ruslan, and rides away in frustration and anger.
Under the mountain, he meets a slightly lively old woman, who with her peck points to the north and says that there she will find the hero of the enemy. Rogdai leaves, and the old woman comes to Farlaf lying in the mud and shaking with fear and advises him to return home, not to endanger himself anymore, because Lyudmila will be so anyway. Having said this, the old woman disappeared, and Farlaf follows her advice.
Meanwhile, Ruslan aspires to her lover, wondering about her fate. Once in the evening, sometimes he drove over the river and heard the buzzing arrows, the ringing of chain mail and the horse neighing. Someone shouted for him to stop. Looking around, Ruslan saw a horseman rushing at him with a raised spear. Ruslan recognized him and started with anger ...
At the same time, Lyudmila, carried away from her wedding bed by the grim Chernomor, woke up in the morning, enveloped in vague horror. She lay in a luxurious bed under a canopy, everything was like in the tales of Shehe-rezada. Beautiful virgins in light clothing approached her and bowed. One skillfully braided her braid and decorated her with a pearl crown, the other put on her an azure sundress and shod, the third filed a pearl belt. The invisible singer all this time sang funny songs. But all this did not amuse Lyudmila’s soul. Left alone, Lyudmila walks to the window and sees only snowy plains and peaks of gloomy mountains, everything is empty and dead in a circle, only with a dull whistle a whirlwind rushes, pumping the forest visible on the horizon. In desperation, Lyudmila runs to the door, which opens in front of her, and Lyudmila goes into an amazing garden, in which palm trees, laurel, cedars, oranges grow, reflected in the mirror of the lakes. Around spring fragrance and the voice of a Chinese nightingale is heard. There are fountains in the garden and beautiful statues that seem alive. But Lyudmila is sad, and nothing amuses her. She sits on the grass, and suddenly a tent unfolds above her, and in front of her is a sumptuous dinner. Beautiful music sweetens her ears. Intending to reject the treat, Lyudmila began to eat. As soon as she got up, the tent itself disappeared, and Lyudmila was again alone and wandered in the garden until evening. Lyudmila feels that she is falling into a dream, and suddenly an unknown force raises her and gently carries her through the air on her bed. Three virgins again appeared and, having laid down Lyudmila, disappeared. In fear, Lyudmila lies in bed and is waiting for something terrible. Suddenly there was a noise, the hall lit up, and Lyudmila sees a long row of araps in pairs carrying a gray beard on the pillows, behind which a hunchbacked dwarf with a shaved head covered with a high cap is important. Lyudmila jumps up, grabs him by the cap, the dwarf is frightened, falls, gets tangled up in her beard, and the Arabs, under the squeal of Lyudmila, carry him away, leaving his hat.
At this time, Ruslan, overtaken by a hero, fights with him in a fierce battle. He rips the enemy off the saddle, picks him up and throws him from the shore into the waves. This hero was none other than Rogdai, who found his death in the waters of the Dnieper.
A cold morning shines on the peaks of the northern mountains. Black Sea lies in bed, and slaves comb his beard and scrub his mustache. Suddenly, a winged serpent flies out the window and turns around to Naina. She greets Chernomor and informs him of an imminent danger. Black Sea answers Naina that the knight is not afraid of him, as long as his beard is intact. Naina, turning into a serpent, flies off again, and Black Sea again goes to the chambers to Lyudmila, but can not find her either in the palace or in the garden. Ludmila disappeared. Black Sea angrily sends slaves in search of the disappeared princess, threatening them with terrible punishments. Lyudmila did not run away anywhere, she just accidentally discovered the secret of the black-sea invisible hat and took advantage of her magical properties.
But what about Ruslan? Having defeated Rogdai, he went further and got to the battlefield with armor and weapons scattered around and yellowing bones of soldiers. Ruslan sadly looks around the battlefield and finds armor, a steel spear among the abandoned weapons for himself, but cannot find the sword. Ruslan rides by the night steppe and notices a huge hill in the distance. Riding closer, in the moonlight he sees that this is not a hill, but a living head in a heroic helmet with feathers that shudder from her snoring. Ruslan tickled his nostrils with a spear, she sneezed and woke up. An angry head threatens Ruslan, but, seeing that the hero is not afraid, he gets angry and begins to blow on him with all his urine. Unable to resist this whirlwind, Ruslan’s horse flies far into the field, and his head laughs at the hero. Enraged by her ridicule, Ruslan throws a spear and pierces his tongue. Taking advantage of the confusion of the head, Ruslan rushes towards her and hits her cheek with a heavy gauntlet. The head staggered, rolled over and rolled. In the place where she stood, Ruslan sees a sword that fit him perfectly. He intends to chop off his nose and ears with this sword, but he hears her groan and spares. The defeated head tells Ruslan his story. Once she was a brave giant knight, but to her misfortune she had a younger dwarf brother, the evil Chernomor, who envied her older brother. Once Black Sea revealed a secret he found in black books that a sword is stored in the basement beyond the eastern mountains, which is dangerous for both brothers. The Black Sea persuaded his brother to go in search of this sword and, when he was found, fraudulently seized it and chopped off his brother’s head, transferred it to this deserted land and made sure that it would always guard the sword. The head invites Ruslan to take the sword and take revenge on the insidious Black Sea.
Khan Ratmir went south in search of Lyudmila and sees a castle on a rock along the wall, along the wall of which there is a singing maiden in the moonlight. She beckons the knight with her song, he drives up, under the wall he is met by a crowd of red girls who arrange a knight for a luxurious reception.
And Ruslan spends this night near his head, and in the morning goes on a further search. Autumn is past and winter is coming, but Ruslan stubbornly moves north, overcoming all obstacles.
Lyudmila, hidden from the eyes of the sorcerer by a magic hat, alone walks through beautiful gardens and teases the servants of Chernomor. But the insidious Black Sea, assuming the appearance of a wounded Ruslan, lures Lyudmila in the net. He is already ready to pluck the fruit of love, but the sound of a horn is heard, and someone calls him. Wearing an invisible hat on Lyudmila, Black Sea flies towards the call.
The sorcerer called Ruslan to battle, he is waiting for him. But the insidious wizard, having become invisible, hits the hero on the helmet. Out of control, Ruslan grabs Chernomor by the beard, and the wizard takes off with him under the clouds. For two days he carried the knight through the air and finally asked for mercy and carried Ruslan to Lyudmila. On the ground, Ruslan cuts his beard with a sword and ties it to his helmet. But, having entered into the possession of Chernomor, he does not see Lyudmila anywhere and begins to destroy everything around with a sword in anger. With an accidental blow, he knocks off the invisibility cap from Lyudmila’s head and finds the bride. But Lyudmila is sleeping soundly. At this moment, Ruslan hears the voice of the Finn, who advises him to go to Kiev, where Lyudmila wakes up. On the way back to the head, Ruslan pleases her with a message about the victory over Chernomor.
On the banks of the river Ruslan sees a poor fisherman and his beautiful young wife. He is surprised to recognize Ratmir as a fisherman. Ratmir says that he found his happiness and left the vain world. He says goodbye to Ruslan and wishes him happiness and love.
Meanwhile, Naina comes to Farlaf, who is waiting in the wings, and teaches how to destroy Ruslan. Sneaking up to the sleeping Ruslan, Farlaf thrusts his sword into his chest three times and hides with Lyudmila.
The murdered Ruslan lies in the field, and Farlaf with sleeping Lyudmila seeks to Kiev. He enters the tower with Lyudmila in her arms, but Lyudmila does not wake up, and all attempts to wake her are fruitless. And here a new disaster strikes Kiev: it is surrounded by rebellious Pechenegs.
While Farlaf goes to Kiev, the Finn comes to Ruslan with living and dead water. Having resurrected the knight, he tells him what happened, and gives a magic ring that will remove the spell from Lyudmila. Encouraged Ruslan rushes to Kiev.
Meanwhile, the Pechenegs besiege the city, and at dawn the battle begins, which does not bring victory to anyone. And the next morning, among the hordes of Pechenegs, a rider suddenly appears in shining armor. He strikes right and left and puts the Pechenegs on the run. It was Ruslan. Having entered Kiev, he goes to the tower, where Vladimir and Farlaf were near Lyudmila. Seeing Ruslan, Farlaf falls to his knees, and Ruslan strives for Lyudmila and, touching the ring of her face, awakens her. Happy Vladimir, Lyudmila and Ruslan forgive Farlaf, who confessed everything, and they take Chernomor, deprived of the magical power, into the palace.
