Once Upon a Time...

...in the kingdom of Corona lived a widowed gentleman and his 9-year-old daughter named Ella. Ella was very thankful for what she had, and she never wanted to ask for anything else. Her father was happy that his daughter was grateful for what she had, but he felt she needed a mother's care.

One day, Ella's father got married to a widow named Lady Jennings. Ella's new stepmother had twin daughters named Celeste and Calliope. These girls were a little bit older than Ella, and she thought it would be fun to have sisters.

One day, when Ella was 18, her father went out on an urgent business trip—but then he disappeared, never to be seen again.

With the absence of Ella's father, her stepfamily revealed their true nature: they were cold, cruel, pushy, and insanely jealous of Ella's charm and beauty. They didn't like Ella being more beautiful than them.

To keep Ella from getting any more beautiful than her daughters, Lady Jennings put her stepdaughter in a handmaiden uniform and treated her more like a servant than a member of the family. Lady Jennings and her daughters bossed Ella around, telling her to do all the chores and never letting her get a break.

Ella's least favorite chore was sweeping the cinders out of the fire place, as she would always get covered in cinders as a result. As a matter of fact, Ella was always so full of cinders that her stepfamily started calling her "Cinderella".

Throughout the years, Cinderella grew more beautiful, and her stepsisters grew uglier and meaner. Cinderella was miserable, working for her stepfamily, but she dreamed of falling in love and escaping her stepfamily for good. She didn't know how that would happen, but she hoped it would soon.