Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters. Everyone in Ingari knows that the eldest is destined to fail miserably if she ever leaves home to seek her fortune. And so what must happen happens: Sophie incurs the wrath of a witch and is cursed.

Her only salvation lies in the moving castle. There lives the powerful but heartless wizard Howl, who could free her from her curse. If only Sophie could tell him about it, but the spell that is on her prevents that.

So Sophie becomes the housekeeper of the moving castle and tries to regain her old form between cynical fire demons and magical worlds.