At the beginning of the story, a queen sits sewing at an open window during a winter snowfall when she pricks her finger with her needle, causing three drops of blood dripping into the freshly fallen snow on the black windowsill. Admiring the beauty of the resulting color combination, she says to herself, "Oh how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony". Soon after that, the queen gives birth to a baby girl who is as white as snow, as red as blood, and with hair as black as ebony. They name her 'Snow White', but sadly, the queen dies after giving birth to her.^[1][4]

After a year has passed, the King takes a new wife, who is beautiful but also unutterably wicked and vain. The new queen possesses a Magic Mirror which she asks every morning: "Magic mirror in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?". The mirror always replies: "My Queen, you are the fairest in the land." The queen is always pleased with that, because the magic mirror never lies. But, when Snow White reaches the age of seven, she becomes as beautiful as the day and even more beautiful than the Queen and when the Queen asks her mirror, it responds: "My Queen, you are the fairest here so true. But Snow White is a thousand times more beautiful than you."^[1][4]