The lives of the nineteenth-century authors Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, noted for their literary works, are dramatized. Wilhelm struggles to compose something enjoyable amidst the multitude of dry nonfiction books they produce, so he collects and publishes oral-tradition fairy stories. Their biography is contrasted by reenactments of three of their stories, including "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves," and "The Singing Bone."