It is night time, and a young girl is swept away by the power of her imagination into a world where nothing is as it first appears…

Here she finds Tamino, a handsome prince who is also lost in this strange land, and is being pursued by a monstrous serpent. Three mysterious women appear, who are servants of the Queen of the Night, and slay the monster. Afterwards, they give Tamino a portrait of the Queen’s daughter, Pamina, and he falls instantly in love, vowing to rescue her from the evil Sarastro, Priest of the Sun, in whose faraway Temple she has been imprisoned. The three women give Tamino a magic flute to help in his quest and with the aid of a bird-catcher, Papageno, Tamino journeys to Sarastro’s temple and meets Pamina for the first time.

Tamino learns that it is not Sarastro who is evil but the Queen of the Night and that Pamina was only being held to keep her hidden from her mother. Sarastro gives Tamino a new quest; he must now undergo a series of trials to prove himself worthy of Pamina’s love.

Using the power of the magic flute, Tamino and Pamina are able to overcome their trials and earn the right to be with each other. At the moment of their success, the Queen of the Night arrives with her servants to storm the temple and destroy it, but Sarastro appears and defeats them, casting them out. The sun rises on a new era for the united heroes.