Plot
Under the rule of her solemn father the King, the young Princess Arete grows up in a lonely tower awaiting a suitor worthy of her. While the suitors accomplish countless treasure-collecting quests for the King, the princess begins to experience an awakening curiosity in the outside world. Sneaking out of the castle several times she begins to recognize that she has been missing out on life while locked away in the isolation of her tower. When her life is disrupted by the arrival of several very enthusiastic suitors, Arete makes up her mind to escape into the wider world however she is caught by the guards and sent before her father.
Just before she is brought to him, the King has met with a powerful sorcerer named Boax to discuss his proposal that Princess Arete be betrothed to the sorcerer. Although the King hesitates at first, he eventually gives in after Boax enchants her into becoming a traditional princess and accepting his advances. Boax then takes the princess to his far away castle prior to the wedding. There he reveals that he does not love her and that the only reason he has brought her here is to imprison her in a dungeon as he is familiar with a prophecy that a princess named Arete will have the power to take away his eternal life.
As Arete sits in her new lonely surroundings, she slowly becomes friends with the one sympathetic person in Boax' castle - a villager named Ample. Ample explains to Arete that Boax has arranged with the nearby town that he will provide them with water for their fields so long as they feed him. Despite this arrangement, Ample reveals that she has begun digging her own well and that soon she will be free from dependence on Boax' magic. Encouraged by Ample, Arete at last loses the enchantment Boax had placed on her and regains her old spirits. Soon after she is released by Boax who still believes her to be enchanted and sent on a magical quest of her own. Returning in secret to Boax' castle, Arete instead discovers the source of Boax' magical ability to create water for the town. In trying to recover the source of the water, Arete is discovered by Boax who in a fit of despondency destroys his own castle releasing water across the land.
With the town's health restored, Arete is free to leave so she decides to go abroad into the countryside and to live together with the country people.
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