A poor family lived in Norway, and one stormy night, a huge white bear knocked on their door and offered them great wealth if their youngest daughter would come live with him. Reluctantly, but wanting to help her family, the brave girl agreed, and traveled with the bear to a grand palace far away among the mountains.

At the palace, every night the girl heard someone come and lie down beside her in complete darkness, though she never saw who it was. The bear warned her again and again never to try to look at him by light. But missing her mother, she visited home, and her mother told her to secretly light a candle at night to see who was visiting her.

One night, the girl lit a small candle and saw a handsome prince sleeping beside her — but a drop of hot wax fell onto his shirt and woke him suddenly. Heartbroken, he explained he had been cursed by a wicked troll to become a bear by day and a man by night, and that now he had to go marry the troll's daughter, in a castle that lay «east of the sun and west of the moon», impossibly far away.

The girl did not give up. She set off alone in search of that distant castle, traveling for many long days until she met wise old women who helped her, and then the four winds themselves, until finally the powerful North Wind carried her across the seas and delivered her at last to the troll's castle, where she found the prince.

Through her great cleverness and patience, the girl was able to reveal the troll and her daughter's trickery to the prince, and to prove her true devotion to him. The prince was freed from the curse forever, and the two of them escaped together, far from that enchanted castle, and lived a happy life full of love after a long journey of courage and determination.