When their father's business fails, a young woman named Beauty and her two sisters leave their fine house in the city and move to a tiny cottage far away from everything they've ever known. The neglected cottage is engulfed by the long thorny stems of some unknown plant. Beauty patiently tends to them, and when, the following summer, the mysterious flowers are the most beautiful things the sisters have ever seen, an old woman tells Beauty: "Roses are for love. Not silly sweethearts' love but the love that makes you and keeps you whole...There's an old folk-tale that there aren't many roses around any more because they need more love than people have to give them to make them flower..."

When Beauty takes her father's place in the terrifying beast's palace, she discovers that his beloved rose garden is dying; and because she needs something to do to distract her from missing her family, because she loves roses--and because she pities the Beast--she determines to bring it back to life...