DESCRIPTION

Rural England, 1850’s. Adapted from the poem by Christina Rossetti. On the verge of womanhood, sisters Lizzie and Laura live together in an isolated idyll. During a visit to the woods, they hear the chants of goblin merchants, selling fruits in mystical abundance and variety. Lizzie runs home, but curious Laura lingers. The goblins sing to her, luring her with exotic fruits ripe to bursting. Having no coin, Laura pays the goblins with a lock of her hair ‘more rare than pearl’. She gorges herself in blissful abandon. Laura returns home, reconciling with anxious Lizzie. Over the coming weeks Laura becomes deathly ill. Laura can no longer hear the goblin cries and cannot buy the fruit she desperately craves. Eventually her sister Lizzie decides to go to the woods and meet the goblins. Refusing to eat the fruit, she insists on paying with coin, not hair. Enraged, the goblins besiege her, but Lizzie prevails. The fruit gained by good means saves her sister from death and the two return to their chaste paradise.