The heroes of this book are fairy-tale characters, creatures and substances who have stepped from one world into another - perhaps less fabulous, but more absurd. And very similar to ours. Cinderella is struggling with a deadline. The Ugly Duckling tells the respectable swans tales from his vicious city life. Orpheus concludes a lucrative contract with the hellish impresario. The slacker Cinderella is getting on the nerves of her good-natured stepmother. The Snow Maiden settles in the summer in an ordinary cottage community. Prometheus steals something from people and brings it to Olympus. Marketing knowledge allows the king to marry off a substandard princess. Evil Evil is encroaching on a medieval house, which is under the protection of UNESCO. At the twelfth stroke of the clock, the prince turns into a drunken idiot. The wand maker switches to making magic toothpicks. The fairy godmother flies to Tibet.