The lives of the nineteenth-century authors Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, whose works are well-known, are enacted. 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."