Damsel tells the story of a girl named Elodie, who marries into a royal family, unaware of the family’s dark secrets. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In a faraway land, a noblewoman named Elodie tells her sister, Floria, that their people are starving and freezing.
Their father, Lord Bayford, receives a letter from the Queen of Aurea, asking for Elodie’s hand in marriage for her son, Prince Henry.
Aurea is a wealthy kingdom, which means Lord Bayford will get a hefty bride price if Elodie marries Henry. With that gold, he will be able to help his people.
For the sake of her people, Elodie agrees to marry Prince Henry. She goes to Aurea with her family, and all of them are enamored by the palace’s opulence.
However, Lord Bayford seems troubled after a conversation with Isabella, the Queen of Aurea. On the other hand, Elodie bonds with Henry.
When Elodie’s stepmother speaks to Queen Isabella, she realizes that Queen Isabella does not care about Elodie; all she cares about is getting a bride for her son.
Elodie’s stepmother tries to dissuade Elodie from marrying Henry, believing that he and his family are not good people, but Elodie does not pay heed to her warnings.
Elodie marries Henry the next day and says goodbye to her family. Right after getting married, Henry takes her up on a mountain to pay respects to his ancestors.
There, a priestess tells Elodie the story of Henry’s ancestors. When his ancestor, a king, first laid claim to the island of Aurea, he discovered that a dragon also inhabited the island.
The dragon, the last of its kind, attacked the village, leading the king to fight her with his soldiers. Though all the soldiers perished in the battle, the dragon spared the king’s life.
In exchange for sharing the island with his subjects, the dragon demanded the sacrifice of his three daughters. A pact was struck, giving rise to the kingdom of Aurea.
Upon finishing the story, the priestess mixes Elodie and Henry’s blood, officially making Elodie a royal.
Following the ceremony, Henry throws Elodie into the chasm, where she realizes too late that she is meant to be a sacrifice for the dragon.
The dragon still lives, and the royal family has been offering her sacrifices for generations now.
Elodie finds herself in the fire-breathing dragon’s lair and encounters the dragon, who wants to make the royals pay. The dragon asks Elodie her name, and she answers.
Elodie realizes that Henry’s blood was mixed with hers to give her the scent of royalty. The royal family has been deceiving the dragon for years.
Instead of their own daughters, they have been offering their princes’ brides as sacrifices to appease the dragon.
Elodie manages to get away from the dragon and hide, but not without sustaining injuries. However, she does not give up and continues fighting for her life.
While trying to find a way out of the dragon’s lair, Elodie stumbles upon a cave full of insects called the glowworms.
The insects not only become a source of light but also heal her injuries. As the dragon continues looking for Elodie, she hides in a cave where the dragon cannot reach.
Inside, Elodie comes across the names of all the girls who made it so far. One of the girls, Victoria, also carved a map on the cave’s wall.
The map shows Elodie the way out. Elodie follows the given path and finds an opening. However, the opening leads to a cliff, and Elodie has no way of getting to safety.
Furthermore, she realizes that Victoria never made it out alive, as the dragon burned her alive from the other side.
Just when the dragon is about to do the same to Elodie, she hears her father’s voice calling out her name.
Elodie’s father realized that he cannot live with sacrificing his daughter for his people and has now come to rescue her.
At the same time, Elodie comes across a kind of shrine created by the dragon, revealing what happened with the first king.
It was the king who attacked the dragon unprovoked and killed her three children, the last of her line, which is why the dragon makes every king sacrifice their daughters.
The dragon wants Lord Bayford to ask Elodie to come out of her hiding place, but even at death’s door, he orders his daughter to stay hidden.
The dragon then proceeds to kill Lord Bayford and his men. In his final moments, Lord Bayford apologizes to Elodie, and she forgives him.
She then escapes the lair through the way Lord Bayford and his men entered, infuriating the dragon.
Ending explained:
Finding a substitute
The angry dragon starts burning everything, and Queen Isabella realizes that Elodie managed to get away. She must now find a substitute to placate the dragon.
She decides to sacrifice Floria, who, along with her stepmother, is waiting for Elodie and Lord Bayford on their ship, even though Floria is just a child.
Floria is kidnapped, and when her stepmother tries to save her, she is stabbed, but she survives and goes after Queen Isabella.
Henry refuses to sacrifice Floria, so Queen Isabella takes matters into her own hands. She mixes her blood with Floria’s and throws her into the dragon’s lair.
The dragon recognizes Floria as Elodie’s sister. Instead of killing her, she uses Floria as bait, lying in wait for Elodie.
Meanwhile, Elodie runs into her stepmother, who tells her about Floria’s kidnapping, and just as the dragon had expected, Elodie goes to save her sister.
Fighting the dragon
Elodie enters the dragon’s lair once again. This time, she is better prepared, as she has already explored the place once.
She cleverly uses the weapons and armor that her father and his men brought to draw the dragon’s attention, prompting it to leave Floria’s side.
Elodie then finds Floria and tries to save her, but the dragon finds the two sisters sooner than expected.
Elodie asks Floria to hide and chooses to face the dragon to tell her the truth about the sacrifices.
Elodie fights the dragon and reveals the truth, but the dragon does not believe her because of the smell of her blood.
Elodie is injured, but she also manages to injure the dragon. Finally, she finds a way to wound the dragon with her own flame and defeats her.
Making the royal family pay
After mortally wounding the dragon, Elodie tells her how the royal family has been deceiving her and how all the girls who were sacrificed had royal blood.
When the dragon realizes that she has been killing innocent daughters, similar to the way the first king killed her daughters, she asks Elodie to kill her.
However, Elodie is sick of listening to others, so she spares the dragon’s life. In fact, she heals it using the glowworms.
Elodie then makes an appearance at the palace, where Henry is marrying the girl who is meant to be the third sacrifice.
Elodie warns the girl, leading to the girl running away with her family. Additionally, Elodie gives one last chance to everyone present there to flee.
Queen Isabella and her family do not take the chance. As a result, they are all killed when the dragon arrives there and burns the whole palace.
In the end, Elodie tells her stepmother, whom she now acknowledges as her mother, that she intends to look after her people with her and Floria’s help.
After acquiring supplies to get her people through the winter, Elodie returns home with her family, but not without her new companion: the dragon.
Also Read: Lord and Lady Bayford: Damsel characters explained