Princess Arete is confined to a tower in her family castle by her father, spending her days gazing at the world beyond her window and occasionally watching the common folk at work. Knights of the kingdom vie for her hand, and the chance to rule, by competing to find powerful magical artifacts crafted by a long‑dead race of sorcerers. Arete rejects this ambition; she longs to meet ordinary people and travel to exotic lands she has only seen in the books she keeps hidden under her bed. One day a sorcerer named Boax arrives in a magnificent flying machine and offers to take Arete as his wife and transform her into a proper princess.