Held captive in the castle tower by her father, Princess Arete passes her days observing the world beyond her window. At times, she looks out to watch the common folk at work. The kingdom's knights vie for the right to marry her and rule the realm by competing to locate powerful magical artifacts crafted by a long-extinct race of sorcerers. Arete desires none of this. She yearns to meet ordinary people and journey to exotic lands she has only encountered in the books she hides beneath her bed. One day, the sorcerer Boax arrives in a magnificent flying machine and proposes to take Arete as his wife, promising to transform her into a proper princess.