The tale begins in the Gothic laboratory of the witch (Méliès). A prince in search of his lost love petitions the witch for aid. Two gnomes bring forth a picture frame in which the witch causes an image to appear, a woman lashed to a stake. The young man, determined to save her, offers money for a magic shamrock. He makes a great mistake, however, paying the witch with a bag of sand rather than the required gold. He departs and the witch, discovering the trick, swears revenge with the fatal dagger. The prince passes through several forbidding landscapes; a grotto, a vast plain with dolmens of the sort found at Stonehenge and in Brittany, and a Norman churchyard where he is threatened by the spirits of the dead. Meanwhile, the witch keeps popping up behind him. Méliès maintains strict continuity of direction from scene to scene as the hero approaches and later returns from his quest. Near an ancient ruin the hero has a dreadful encounter with giant toads, owls, girating snakes, and assorted acrobatic beasties. These marvelous props were used many times over in Star Film films, for example, in "Au pays des jouets" (1908). All seems lost for the prince until Saint Michael appears, vanquishing the demons. Together they escape as the frustrated witch flies off on a broomstick. The lovers pause on a rocky promontory. Again they are threatened by the witch brandishing the fatal dagger, but Saint Michael appears once more and destroys the evil creature, while the prince and princess look fondly at each other. (texten ur Artificially Arranged Scenes. The Films of Georges Méliès av John Frazer 1979)