Long ago, a King was proud of his eleven sons and one daughter, Eliza. After the Queen died, the King remarried. The new Queen was jealous. She sent Eliza to a farm and turned the princes into swans with golden crowns.
Eliza grew up happily but missed her brothers. At fifteen, she returned to the palace. The furious Queen tried to mar Eliza's beauty with toads and walnut juice, making the King reject his own daughter. Heartbroken, Eliza ran away to find her brothers.
After washing in a stream and restoring her beauty, she met an old woman who had seen eleven crowned swans. Eliza followed the river to the shore. At sunset, the swans transformed back into her brothers. They explained their curse: swans by day, humans by night, doomed if not on land at sunset.
They wove a net to carry Eliza to a beautiful land across the sea. There, a fairy visited Eliza in a dream. She told Eliza she could break the spell by weaving eleven shirts from stinging nettles, but she must not speak a word until the task was complete, or her brothers would die.
Eliza began her painful work. Her hands became blistered, but she remained silent. One day, a King found her in the forest and, captivated by her beauty, took her to his palace and married her. He gave her a room like her cave, where she continued her work in secret.
When she ran out of nettles, Eliza had to gather more from a graveyard at night. The Archbishop saw her and accused her of witchcraft. The King, following her one night, saw witches in the graveyard and believed the accusation. Eliza was condemned to be burned at the stake.
In prison, she continued weaving. On the day of her execution, as she was taken to the stake finishing the eleventh shirt, eleven swans flew down. Eliza threw the shirts over them, transforming them back into princes. The youngest kept one wing, as his shirt was unfinished.
Finally able to speak, Eliza told the King the whole story. The stake blossomed into a rose bush. The King gave Eliza a rose, and they returned to the palace for a happy wedding.