The stepmother and her daughter go to the royal palace with the basket of snowdrops, having left the stepdaughter at home. The pleased queen orders them to tell her where they found flowers in the winter. The two invent a tale about a wonderful place in which in the winter grow not only flowers, but even mushrooms and berries. The queen herself decides to go to this wonderful place together with the court. The stepmother and her daughter admit that the stepdaughter was the one to gather the flowers. The queen takes them and the stepdaughter into the wood. The stepdaughter complains that the stepmother and daughter stole a ring from her, so the queen orders them to return it. After the stepdaughter receives the ring, the queen demands that the stepdaughter tell them where she found the snowdrops. After the stepdaughter refuses, the queen orders her guards to remove the stepdaughter's fur coat, threatens to execute her, and throws her magic ring into an ice-hole. The stepdaughter says the magic words April taught her and runs away. At once there comes the Spring, and then — Summer. Around the queen it becomes dry and warm. Then there comes Autumn. The queen, having been drenched under the strongest autumn heavy rain, freezes suddenly as Winter arrives. The blizzard carries away all the fur coats which the court had taken off during the brief arrival of Summer. They begin to freeze and, abandoning the queen, the court flees back to the palace. With her remains only an old soldier and the professor. They cannot return home on the sledge as the horses had been taken by the court to return to the palace. An old man in a white fur coat (brother month January) comes out of the wood and suggests that everyone think of one desire. The queen wishes to return home, the professor — that the seasons return to normal, the soldier — "just to get warm at a fire", and the stepmother and her daughter for fur coats made of dog fur. January begins with the last request and gives the two fur coats. They begin to squabble each other, and transform into dogs. They are harnessed to the sledge, and the queen tries to use them to go back to the palace, but they don't get far. The soldier comes to get warm at the brother months'