The capricious Queen, Galina Novozhilova, is semiliterate, bratty, and resistant to instruction. When a botany lesson turns toward spring, she longs for April to arrive with Snowdrops. The Professor, Erast Garin, warns that such a change is impossible in the dead of winter, but the Queen issues a royal decree: whoever brings a basket of snowdrops to the palace will receive the same basket of gold and a fur coat.
A poor country Stepdaughter, Lyudmila Kasatkina, and her Daughter, Yuliya Yulskaya, dream of the reward. When the Stepdaughter returns home after gathering brushwood, the Stepmother, Tatyana Barysheva, and her Daughter hurry to push her back into the woods to fulfill the royal order and bring back the impossible flowers.
In a glade where a small fire glows, the twelve brother Months sit near the heat. April enters the scene and asks to borrow a moment of time to help the girl. With that aid, the Stepdaughter triumphs and returns home with Snowdrops, aided by a magic ring given to her by April. If trouble arises, she can throw the ring and speak the magic words—upon which all twelve Months will come to her rescue.
Back at home, the Stepdaughter’s stepmother and her daughter boast of their flowering discovery, and the queen’s curiosity grows. The two concoct a tale about a miraculous winter garden where flowers, mushrooms, and berries bloom freely. The queen decides to visit this place with her court, and the Stepdaughter’s role grows perilous: the queen demands to know where the snowdrops were found. When the Stepdaughter refuses to reveal the secret, guards strip her fur coat, and the queen hurls the magic ring into an ice-hole. Yet the stepdaughter speaks the magic words taught by April and escapes into the woods.
With spring’s arrival, the seasons begin their whirlwind: Spring, then Summer, then Autumn, and finally a harsh Winter. The queen, drenched by a powerful Autumn rain, ends up freezing as Winter takes hold. The blizzard snatches away the fur coats the court had shed during Summer, leaving the queen and her entourage to face the cold. An old man in a white fur coat emerges from the wood and speaks of one simple wish each could make.
January, the figure in white, Aleksei Gribov, offers a choice: the queen wishes to return home, the Professor asks for seasonal balance, the soldier desires warmth by a fire, and the Stepmother and her Daughter crave fur coats made of dog fur. January grants the fur coats to the two, who then squabble and transform into dogs, harnessed to a sledge. Their attempt to use the sledge fails to get far.
Meanwhile, the soldier encounters the Stepdaughter, who now wears new fur and guides a team of snow-white horses. The soldier suggests they borrow the horses to return to the castle, but the queen demands them by force. The Stepdaughter explains that kindness works better than coercion, and she willingly lends the horses and warm coats to help everyone get home. In the end, they ride toward the castle, leaving the brother Months gathered at a New Year’s fire.
