In a variation on a familiar story, Prince Ivan is the only one of his three brothers with the vigilance to find the thief of his father's golden apples. But when he tries to catch the thief - a firebird - he catches nothing but a tail feather. His father, overcome by the feather's beauty, promises riches to the son who brings back the firebird. Ivan repeatedly fails, and only through the help of a speaking wolf can he undertake the most difficult journey of all, through the dark forest of Baba Yaga, ending finally at the battlefield of the most dangerous foe of all: Koschei the Deathless Himself!