Prospero narrates the plot this film adaptation of Shakespeare's quintessential play, The Tempest. We meet Miranda, Prospero's daughter, together with Prospero, a wizard who is serving a lifelong exile. She meets Ferdinand and they clearly have chemistry, despite Prospero's hatred of the boy's father who is like a nemesis to Prospero. Prospero used to be royalty in Italy, but after a mutinous betrayal, he was exiled and has been practicing magic until such a time as this.
The people who exiled Prospero have crash-landed on the island in a tempest after Prospero casts curses on them. As Prospero considers his next plans, we meet a spirit of the island who works for the wizard, named Ariel. Ariel is four people in one: three acrobats and a singer, like in the circus. The three acrobats are different aged children. Ariel gives him some ideas: to betray all those who betrayed him first. The sprite tells him to stand up for himself and take revenge. The film depicts Prospero writing a script in his fury, a nod to Shakespeare.
The island has a monster named Caliban, a humanoid primitive being who is feral, but always intrigued by the humans. Caliban bothers the court jester of the crash-landed king, along with Stephano, the butler. The magician decides to forgive the family curse against Fernando, and he engages his daughter to be married. At the engagement party, he avoids an intended murder, and then marries them, giving up his angry magic.
