: Through the fault of the young princess, all white herons were exterminated. Upon learning of this, the princess repents, realizes the responsibility of man to others, and decides to devote herself to the future of her people.

Far in the north, among the freezing sea, a kingdom spreads out on a lonely island, almost all year round immersed in cold twilight and fog. Winter was long and summer was short. Wild cliffs were covered only with gray mosses for a short while, and then they were again covered with snow. The king of this island had a beautiful daughter, Princess Isolda, as kind as her father. She married Prince Sagir.

The princess ordered the tailor a wedding dress whiter than snow, a cloak as gray as the North Sea, and a headdress similar to sparkling frosty patterns on glass. This outfit was supposed to remind Isolde of the homeland. The tailor promised to sew a cloak and dress from the most expensive materials, but he did not know what to make a sparkling headdress for - there was no such material in the world.

The princess is upset. Three days later, an ugly, hunchbacked old man came into her room. He told the princess about white herons, living far in the south, on the banks of a beautiful lake. By spring, crests of finest feathers grow on the heads of birds.If you decorate this crest with diamonds, you get the dress that the princess dreams of. However, to get such a crest, the old man warned, a beautiful bird will have to be killed. What does the death of one of the many birds mean in comparison with the beauty of the wedding dress!

At first, Isolda refused, but the old man gave her time to think and disappeared. After a sleepless night, the princess called the old man and told him to go on a journey.

The long-awaited spring has come. In the palace, everything was ready for the wedding. The princess waited for the groom, who brought all the riches of the culture of his country. An old man with a crest of a heron decorated with diamonds sailed on the prince’s ship. He gave Isolde a piece of clothing. In her beautiful outfit, the princess married Prince Sagir and sailed on a richly decorated ship to his country.

Several years have passed. Isolda lived happily in a warm country by the gentle sea, but still missed her harsh homeland. One day she boarded a ship and went to visit her father. Isolda settled in her former bedroom and every time before going to bed she recalled her youth, her wedding, and her wonderful wedding attire.

One night, two white herons appeared to the princess - the last of the survivors. The old man exterminated all the birds for the sake of their elegant crests. Herons showed Isolde storefronts with expensive decorations and the once prosperous valley where white herons lived. Now the valley was full of their corpses.

In the morning, the princess decided that this was just a nightmare, but the dream did not give her rest, and Isolda told her terrible mistake to her father. The king was upset that his daughter had deceived him.He told the princess about the ruthless extermination of white herons. Isolda realized that her dream was true, and it was no longer possible to correct the harm caused - all herons died.

Repentant, the princess returned to her family. Until now, she lived only for herself, but now she realized that the purpose of man is to bring good. There was a lot of grief among the people of Prince Sagir, and the princess decided to help, "forgetting herself and all her pleasures ... to start a completely new, full and beneficial life among people."