Once a merchant's wife Martha finds a book of spells in the attic. Many of the spells she finds useless but one, in particular, gets her attention. A spell that grants immorality. At first, Martha desperately wishes for the spell to work but soon she finds out she has to be more careful with what she wishes for. Is immortality a curse or a gift? Martha seems to think the former but there are people who wouldn't agree. A king, a shepherd-girl, a poet, a merchant, and a snake would all have different answers.