Cassandra is the young daughter of a duke in a faraway kingdom. Since birth she has suffered from a mysterious affliction: whenever she has an emotion that is too intense, fire bursts forth from her skin and scorches everything she touches, including her mother or her own hair!

She’s obliged to spend almost every day immersed in water to avoid burning things or hurting people, which is really not much fun for a young girl. So she’s delighted when one day her uncle comes up with what looks like a miracle solution for her predicament. But in order to benefit from the cure, she must first travel to the far end of the kingdom.

Cassandra sets off on a strange and perilous voyage, her body in a large tub of water, escorted by two young and rather incompetent knights who will have to protect her from terrifying snake-monkeys and ghastly bandits.