Young Kaji and Greda, characters from Hans Christian Andersen`s The Snow Queen, are suddenly left alone when their author dies. They have to confront the challenge of exiting in the real world. Gerda leaves Kaji to follow a new friend who catches her fancy. Soon she regrets this decision, and tries to find Kaji again. In the course of her search, she meets ten adults who tell her their stories. Gerda has a talent for drawing people out, and the people she meets reveal their secret memories of their own unhappy childhoods with cruel or indifferent parents. Gerda gradually discovers that life in the real world is not at all like life in a fairy tale.