Sophie is doomed to live a dreary, boring life. She is the oldest of three sisters, which, as everyone knows, means that she will be the first to fail should she go out and seek her fortune. To make things worse, she is not even poor or ugly. She is a rather pretty girl from a fairly well off family. So far as Sophie can see, she is doomed to spend the rest of her boring life in her father's hat shop.

One day, everything changes in a rather unexpected way. A grand lady enters the hat shop and asks to see some hats. Sophie knows that none of her hats are right for this lady and asks why she bothers to shop there. This grand lady turns out to be the wicked Witch of the Waste, and she is angry at Sophie. The Witch believes...