A long long time ago there was a great feast to celebrate the wedding of the beautiful princess Ludmila and the knight Ruslan. But the bride was kidnapped on the wedding day. Ruslan, along with three other knights named Rogday, Farlaf and Ratmir who also wanted to marry Ludmila, rode off to search for her.
Ruslan met a good wizard who told him that Ludmila had been kidnapped by the evil sorcerer Chernomor. During his quest to find the sorcerer, Ruslan was forced into a battle with his jealous rival Rogday and killed him by knocking him from his horse into the waters of the Dnieper River.
A short while after, Ruslan met a huge head on a battlefield and also won a victory over it. The head told Ruslan that all of Chernomor's power was contained in his beard. And under the head, Ruslan found a shining sword. Ruslan left and went to search his beloved Ludmila.
She had been held at Chernomor's castle. The scorcerer made her life comfortable, but she missed Ruslan and wasn't happy.
Once she was frightened by the magical appearance of the sorcerer and lost consciousness for a long time. When Ruslan arrived at Chernomor's the castle they battled for two days. Chernomor tried to use the power of his beard, but finally Ruslan managed to slice off the beard with his powerful sword.
Ruslan carried the unconscious Ludmila back to Kiev and on the way met Farlaf. At night the cowardly and evil Farlaf plunged a sword into Ruslan, leaving him to die. Farlaf then carried the unconscious Ludmila back to her father.
It happened that at that time the city of Kiev was besieged by enemies. Ruslan, who was revived by a good wizard, came charging to the city and saved it. He then went to to his bride-to-be and awakened her with a magic ring. Ruslan and Ludmila were together again and lived happily after that.