In the first part of Peter Roch's Lusatian trilogy, a fairy tale is transformed into a parable about threats to the environment. The film presents an ancient alder forest with numerous small rivers on the northern edge of the Spreewald, a unique natural setting which has been preserved in the middle of the Cottbus energy production region. These images are accompanied by a story about people whose king gave them everything that would make their lives comfortable, richer and more colorful, but suddenly they no longer had any forest.

Based on a fairy tale from Krabat, or the Transformation of the World by Sorbian-East German poet Jurij Brězan.