Tattercoats, a neglected, beautiful young woman, has been abandoned by her father. One day her grandfather, the rich Baron of Fisher Forest, receives an invitation to a birthday ball at Queen Elizabeth's court. Tattercoats desperately wants to go, but her grandfather refuses. It is up to Tattercoat's only friends - the servant girl Malkin and a lame, flute-playing gooseherd named Pug - to find a way. So begins a magical journey, where nothing is as it seems, and danger and delight await them.