One day, King Hildebrand and his hunters chase a wild deer, only to stumble into a cursed magical forest. The deer suddenly withers into a tree, and when the king blows his horn for help, no outside aid arrives. An old Witch appears and says that the only one who can guide him out is Greta, but Greta’s favor must be earned first. Greta promises to help if the king agrees to marry her, claiming she is beautiful enough to deserve the queen’s place. The king, longing for companionship after his wife’s long absence, consents and leaves the forest with Greta by his side.
Back home, the royal family has seven children—six princes and a 12-year-old princess named Eliza. The queen once wished for their children to grow up surrounded by nature, so the king builds a castle deep in the forest where they can live with occasional visits from their parents. After the queen dies, she leaves behind several magical balls of yarn; one of these balls holds the key to navigating the forest. Greta, learning the king’s secret from a maid, witnesses the truth of his arrangement and the family’s protected life. Greta schemes to seize control, and when the king returns late on a promised visit, she steals the yarn ball and travels to the forest castle the next morning, leaving the king oblivious to the danger.
In Greta’s plan, six of the seven children are transformed into swans by six pieces of enchanted white cloth, and only Eliza manages to escape, hiding deep in the woods. Her six elder brothers turn into swans and fly away, while Eliza’s sorrowful tears crystallize into tiny elves that guide her toward courage. It is winter when she reaches a distant cave, and her brothers explain that they can only resume their human forms at night; daylight sends them back to swans. They fashion winter clothing for Eliza and, for a time, live with her in the cave, waiting for spring.
To break the spell, Eliza must remain mute for six years and sew six shirts from nettle yarn. If she speaks or cries while knitting, the brothers will vanish forever. Determined, Eliza resolves to knit all six shirts, moving from place to place so she won’t be forced into speech. The brothers eventually return to the forest cave, only to find that Eliza has disappeared again. She hides in a hollow tree and quietly completes five shirts, carrying on with the sixth until she is captured by hunters from a neighboring realm and taken to the court of King Friedrich, who is instantly captivated by her beauty.
Meanwhile, King Hildebrand expels Greta after learning of the swan-trap he was lured into. Greta appeals to the old Witch for help in winning the heart of King Friedrich, and the Witch conjures a disease spell over the river near Friedrich’s kingdom. Yet as the countdown nears its end, Eliza is close to finishing the sixth shirt that will lift the curse. Greta believes that if Eliza fails, she can reclaim the king’s favor and ruin Hildebrand in the process.
The stakes escalate when the Witch and Greta burn Eliza’s remaining yarn balls and accuse her of grave misdeeds. Eliza is arrested and condemned to burn at the stake along with one of her brothers. As flames close in, the six shirts fall from Eliza and are caught by her brothers, who fly to her side and don the shirts, their swan feathers extinguishing the fire. Only then does Eliza speak, revealing the truth to the crowd and shocking everyone.
The Witch and Greta face justice as their magic is broken. The brothers rescue Eliza, expose the plot, and persuade King Friedrich to expel the witch and Greta from the wilderness. With the danger behind them, Eliza asks for clemency for the two witches, who are banished, and she goes on to marry King Friedrich. The kingdom rejoices as Eliza is united with her six elder brothers and their father, King Hildebrand, and they all live happily ever after under the blessings of their people.
