- Fairytale time: king, daughters, you know the drill.
- Actually, this time, the king is a wealthy merchant. He goes on a trip and asks his daughters what they want him to bring back for them.
- Youngest daughter: fancy gowns. Middle daughter: jewels. Eldest daughter: a rose.
- The merchant gets the gowns and jewels, but forgets the rose until he's almost home.
- He sees a house with rosebushes out front and cuts one. A cloaked figure appears and asks why the merchant took his rose without paying him.
- The merchant can keep it, says the figure, but as payment, the merchant has to give him the first of his possessions he sees when he gets home.
- The figure removes the hood and is a hideous beast.
- First thing the merchant sees upon arriving home: his eldest daughter.
- This is the story of "Beauty and the Beast". Beauty falls in love, as we know, but the merchant will never see the beast as anything but, well, a beast.