Once upon a time there was a man who wrote stories. And he began to write the story of the Prince and the Raven, the story of the Prince's knight who was killed by the Raven, the story of Princess Tutu who saved the Prince from the Raven's curse, the story of the Prince's fight against the Raven. But the man died before the story could be completed. And the Prince and the Raven found themselves locked in an eternal battle. Sick of this, they fled the story. And the Prince used a forbidden power to shatter his heart, and use some of it to seal the Raven away.

Gold Crown Town is a peaceful, happy Germanic town with a respectable school for the arts. But in this town reality and stories have blended. A cat is the ballet teacher, an electric eel the leader of a theatre troupe. Ghosts dance in a deserted mansion, and if you stand quietly on a certain bridge you'll hear a voice asking "Why?" Ahiru ("Duck") attends the ballet school in Gold Crown Town. She has a crush on the older student Mytho, but has trouble getting close to Mytho because of the boy's hostile best friend, Fakir. Not that she would stand much of a chance, when Mytho has the beautiful and graceful Rue by him. But...that's right, that's not all there is to it. Mytho is the prince, and she is the duck that became Princess Tutu so that he would regain his heart and smile again.

The Prince without a heart and little memory of what he is.

The Princess who can save him but never be with him.

The Knight determined to protect the Prince but afraid of death.

The Princess who has never been loved.

The pieces are all in place, and time begins to march again, come, tell us a story...