The plot, based on an *E. T. A. Hoffmann story*, opens at a Christmas party, where *Drosselmeyer* gives his daughter *Clara* a toy nutcracker, which her brother Fritz soon breaks. At night, the living room becomes a battleground between the evil *Mouse King* and toys and *gingerbread soldiers*, led by the Nutcracker. Clara throws her slipper at the Mouse King, distracting him long enough for the Nutcracker to kill him. The Nutcracker then turns into a prince and leads Clara into a magical forest where the "*Waltz of the Snowflakes*" marks the end of Act I. In Act II Clara and the prince arrive in the Land of Sweets, where they witness dances representing delicacies from around the world, including *Arabian coffee* and *Spanish chocolate*, as well as the Chinese "*Dance of the Reed Flutes*" and the Russian "*Trepak*." Mother Ginger has a group of clowns ("Polcinelles") emerge from her skirt to dance before the orchestra plays the "*Waltz of the Flowers*" and the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Cavalier dance a pas de deux. Finally, the *Sugar Plum Fairy* dances alone to music that marks one of the first orchestral uses of the *celesta*.
