The plot turns on the love of the good Prince Amiable (son and heir to the throne of King Buonocore) for Princess Violet, whom he has never been permitted to behold. The good fairy Rosetinta provides him with six magic roses that possess the power of causing those who smell them to become either invisible (the white ones) or visible (the red ones) at will. The prince sets out on a journey with his companions, the Counts Muffio and Spoonio, in search of his lady love, with each in possession of a white and red rose. Eventually, they arrive at the court of King Turco the Terrible, the father of Princess Violet, and are arrested and sentenced to death. Their only avenue of escape from the hangman's noose is to marry Princess Violet's decidedly old and ugly sisters, Tartarella and Dragonetta. The narrative's complications involve numerous 'absurd situations', such as the Prince and his companions having to use the roses in order to escape King Turco's evil plan to kill them after the marriage and King Turco using the last of the white roses to turn himself invisible in order to spy on his prime minister (but without the power to rectify his mistake).
Songs known to have been incorporated into the story are 'Justice in Australia' (sung by Alice St John, Amy Johns, and Emma Markham), 'Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay' (James Wilkinson), 'He Always Likes to Have a Finger in the Pie' (Edmund Leonard and Frank Hawthorne), 'Gentlemen of the Jury' (Percy St John), 'Australia by the Sea' (Amy Johns), 'The Militiaman' (Emma Markham), and 'Take a Day Off, Mary-Ann.' Several marches were also warmly received, particularly the 'Prize Princess Show', which served to introduce princesses of all parts of the earth in national costume, even the Princess of Woolloongabba.
