One day, a poor fisherman catches a small gold fish. the fish asks the fisherman to release him, promising to fulfill all his wishes. But the old man takes pity on him and gives him back his freedom without asking him anything. Back home, the fisherman tells his wife about his adventure, which forces him to return to the river to ask the goldfish for a new laundry tub. So he goes to the river again and the fish gives him the laundry tub. The woman was however not satisfied and asked her husband for a house, a title of nobility and finally that of the Czarina. But she always wants more, and while now despising her husband, she demands to become the queen of the waters and to have the golden fish at her service. She ends up losing everything, the little gold fish takes back all her gifts.