It is December 24, the house of Stahlbaum. Everyone is preparing for Christmas, and the children - Fritz and Marie – are wondering what will this time they get for a present from an inventor and godfather, senior adviser to the court Drosselmeyer, who often repairs clocks in the Stahlbaum’s house. Marie dreams about the garden and a lake with swans, and Fritz says that he likes their parents’ gifts more, because he can play with them (godfather’s toys are usually kept away from children so that they do not break them), and godfather cannot make the whole garden.
In the evening children admired the beauty-Christmas tree, near and on which were gifts: a new doll dress, hussars, etc. The godfather did a wonderful castle, but dancing dolls performed the same movement, and to get inside the castle was impossible, so the miracle of technology quickly became boring - only the mother got interested in a complex mechanism. When all the presents were sorted out, Marie saw the Nutcracker. Ugly doll seemed for the girl very pleasant. Fritz quickly broke the couple of Nutcracker’s teeth in an attempt to split the hard nuts, and thus Marie began to take care of it. At night children removed toys in the glass cabinet. Marie, placing her ward with all the conveniences, became a witness of the Battle of seven-headed Mouse King and the army led by the Nutcracker doll. Dolls surrendered under the onslaught of mice, and when the Mouse King has slumped to the Nutcracker, Marie threw her shoe at him.
When the girl woke up glass cabinet was broken. No one believed her story about the night incident. The godfather brought the repaired Nutcracker and told the tale of a solid walnut: the king and the queen had a beautiful princess Pirlipat, but the queen Mouserinks, taking revenge for her killed relatives by mousetraps of the court watchmaker Drosselmeyer (they ate bacon), turned the beauty into the ugly. Only the clicking of nuts could soothe her now. Drosselmeyer, under pain of death, with the help of a court astrologer, calculated the princess’s horoscope - her beauty could be restored by the walnut Krakatuk, chopped by a boy by a special method.
The king sent Drosselmeyer and astrologer in search of salvation; both a nut and a young man (the watchmaker's nephew) were found in Drosselmeyer’s brother’s hometown. Many princes have broken their teeth trying to crack the Krakatuk, and when the king promised to give his daughter in marriage to a savior, a nephew came forward. He split the nut and the princess ate it and became a beautiful woman again, but the young man was unable to complete the entire rite, because Mouserinks fell under his feet. The mouse was killed, but the guy turned into the Nutcracker. The king drove Drosselmayera, his nephew and away. However, the astrologer predicted that the Nutcracker would become a prince and his ugliness would disappear if he won the Mouse King and a beautiful girl would fall in love with him.
Marie began to reproach Drosselmeyer that he did not help the Nutcracker. He said that only she could help, because she ruled over the light kingdom. The Mouse King got into the habit to extort her sweets in return for the safety of the Nutcracker. The parents were alarmed by the fact that the house was full of mice. When he asked for her books and clothes, she sobbed, she was ready to give everything, but when there would be nothing left, the Mouse King would want to tear herself. The nutcracker became alive and promised to take care of everything if he got the sword - Fritz helped with that. At night the Nutcracker came to Marie with a bloody sword, candle and 7 gold crowns. Having given her the trophies, he led her to his kingdom - the country of fairy tales, where they got into through the father's fox fur coat. Helping Nutcracker’s sisters about the house Marie suddenly woke up in her bed.
None of the adults believed her story. As to the crown Drosselmayer said that this was his gift for her and refused to admit the Nutcracker to be his nephew (toy stood in its place in the closet). The father threatened to throw out all the dolls, and Marie did not dare to stammer about her story. But once on the threshold of their home appeared Drosselmayer’s nephew who privately confessed to Marie that ceased to be the Nutcracker, and made her an offer to share with him the crown and the throne of the Marzipan Castle. They say she is still the queen there.
