Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair 1970

King Yeremey, Mikhail Pugovkin is driven by a compulsion to count everything in his kingdom and sets off on a year-long journey to sate that urge. On his way home, as he stops for water at a forest well, he is seized by the underwater king, Georgi Millyar Chudo-Yudo, who demands that Yeremey surrender “what he doesn’t know he has.”

what he doesn’t know he has

Back in the kingdom, Yeremey returns to a surprising revelation: his son, Andrei, the tsar’s son Sergey Nikolaev, was born during his absence. Reluctant to part with his heir, Yeremey and his sly advisor hatch a plan to switch Andrei with a fisherman’s child. But the advisor’s wife, moved by compassion, reverses the swap and restores the children to their rightful places.

Years pass and the tale widens its moral lens. Andrei, the prince, grows spoiled and lazy, basking in privilege; meanwhile Andrei, the fisherman’s son, Aleksei Katyshev blossoms into a kind, hardworking young man who earns the king’s affection—yet the king remains convinced that the spoiled prince is the true heir.

Meanwhile beneath the waves, Chudo-Yudo arranges a wedding for his daughter Varvara, the sorceress Tatyana Klyuyeva, who longs for a loving husband from the human world. Hearing of Yeremey’s deal, Varvara begins to press the land king for what is due to her family. Yeremey grows uneasy as the pressure mounts.

To test his own son, Yeremey sends Andrei, the prince, into Chudo-Yudo’s realm, where his selfish nature leads to failure in Varvara’s tests. In contrast, Andrei, the fisherman’s son arrives Aleksei Katyshev and passes Varvara’s tests with genuine kindness, and the two fall in love.

Chudo-Yudo, furious at the intertwining fates of love and loyalty, tries to keep Varvara and the fisherman’s son apart, but with the aid of magical allies they manage to escape. The spoiled prince’s betrayal lands him in Varvara’s scorn, and she curses him by turning him into a dog.

Back on land, the advisor’s wife reveals the truth of the failed child swap, enabling a reconciliation of the feuding factions. Andrei the fisherman weds Varvara, while the humbled Yeremey reclaims his foolish son, learning a quiet lesson about pride, mercy, and the weight of a kingdom’s legacy.