Six brothers from a King’s first marriage have been turned into swans by their stepmother. The brothers can only take their human forms for fifteen minutes every evening. To free them, their sister named Elise must make six shirts out of nettles and can’t make a sound for seven years or the spell will never be broken.

The King of another country finds her doing this, is taken by her beauty, and marries her. When Elise, now queen, has given birth to their first child, the King’s own wicked mother-in-law takes away the child and accuses the queen of destroying it. Unable to defend herself, the queen is sentenced to beburned at the stake as a witch.

On the day of her execution, she has all but finished making the shirts for her brothers. Only the last shirt misses a left arm. When she is brought to the stake she takes the shirts with her and when she is about to be burned, the seven years expire and six swans come flying through the air. She throws the shirts over her brothers and they regain their human form. (In some versions she does not finish the sixth shirt in time, or a sleeve is missing.) The queen, now free to speak, can defend herself against the accusations. Her mother-in-law returns the baby she stole, and in anger she falls into a fit and dies.