The Little Prince recap

A pilot stranded by engine failure in the desert meets a small boy, the little prince, who asks him to draw a sheep. Over the days of the pilot's repairs the prince tells his story. He comes from a tiny planet where he tends three volcanoes and a single proud, vain rose whom he loves but quarrels with. Troubled, he leaves and visits several small planets, each home to a foolish grown-up: a king, a conceited man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer, who sends him to Earth. There he finds a garden of thousands of roses and despairs that his own is not unique, until a fox teaches him that the love and care he gave his rose are what make her matter, and that what is essential is invisible to the eye. Realizing he is responsible for his rose, the prince arranges with a snake to be bitten so that his body, too heavy to carry, is left behind while he returns to his planet. He falls silently; the next morning his body is gone. The pilot, his plane repaired, believes the prince has gone home to his flower.

The narrator recalls that as a child he drew a boa constrictor digesting an elephant, but grown-ups saw only a hat, so he gave up drawing and grew up feeling apart from the practical adult world. Now a pilot, he is forced down in the desert with a broken engine and little water. There a small, serious boy appears and asks him to draw a sheep, and after several tries the pilot satisfies him by drawing a box with the sheep imagined inside. Little by little the pilot learns that this little prince comes from a very small planet, no bigger than a house. On it he keeps small volcanoes swept clean and pulls up the seedlings of dangerous baobab trees before their roots can split the planet apart, and when he is sad he watches the sunset again and again. He also tells of a single beautiful rose that grew there, proud and demanding, whom he loved but could not always understand. Hurt and confused by her, and wanting to see more of the world, the prince decided to leave his planet, tending it one last time and taking a sorrowful farewell of the flower before setting out to travel among other worlds.

On his travels the little prince visits a series of small planets, each with a single grown-up whose life he finds strange. A king believes he rules the entire universe but only commands what would happen anyway. A conceited man wants nothing but to be admired and applauded. A drunkard drinks to forget that he is ashamed of drinking. A businessman busily counts the stars, claiming to own them though it does them no good. A lamplighter faithfully lights and puts out his lamp every minute on a planet that spins too fast to rest, and the prince respects him as the only one whose work is not just for himself. Last he meets a geographer who records mountains and rivers but never leaves his desk to see them, and who tells the prince that flowers are considered fleeting things, which worries him for the sake of his rose. The geographer advises him to visit the planet Earth, and the prince continues on his way, more and more puzzled by how grown-ups spend their lives.

The little prince arrives on Earth in a desert and first meets a yellow snake, which speaks in riddles and hints that it has the power to send him back to where he came from whenever he wishes. He wanders on, speaking with a small desert flower and hearing only his own echo answer him from a mountain, and he begins to feel lonely and far from home. Then he comes upon a garden filled with thousands of roses, all just like the flower he had believed was the only one of her kind in all the universe. Dismayed, he weeps, feeling that his rose and he himself are far less special than he had thought. A fox appears and asks to be tamed, explaining that taming means creating ties that make two creatures unique and important to each other. Through the fox the prince understands that the hours he spent caring for his own rose are exactly what make her matter more than any of the thousands in the garden, that one stays responsible forever for what one has tamed, and that the truest things are seen not with the eyes but with the heart.

The prince meets a railway switchman and a merchant selling pills that quench thirst, encounters that leave him unimpressed with how grown-ups save time. Meanwhile the pilot's water has run out, and the two set off together and find a well, which refreshes them both. The prince reveals that it is nearly a year since he fell to Earth, and that he means to return to his planet and his rose, for whom he now feels responsible. Because his body is too heavy to carry back, he arranges with the yellow snake to be bitten so that he can leave it behind, warning the grieving pilot that it will look like death but is only a return home. That night the snake bites him and he falls gently to the sand. The next morning his body is gone, and the pilot, his plane now repaired, believes the prince has gone back to his own small planet and his flower. Years later the pilot still watches the stars, wondering whether the sheep he drew has eaten the rose because he forgot to draw a strap for its muzzle, and he asks anyone who meets a small golden-haired boy in the desert to write and tell him the prince has come back.

Nearly a year after the little prince first fell to Earth, and close to the anniversary of his arrival, he prepares to return to his planet and his rose. He tells the pilot, whose plane is now repaired, that his body is too heavy to take with him and that he must leave it behind like an old shell, so it will only look as if he is dying. That night he goes to the spot where he landed and lets the yellow snake bite him at the ankle. He falls gently and without a sound to the sand. The next morning the pilot cannot find his body, and he takes this as a sign that the prince has truly gone back to his own small planet and his flower. Comforted and sorrowful at once, the pilot returns to the world of grown-ups. Years later he still looks up at the night sky, wondering whether the sheep he drew has eaten the rose, since he forgot to add a strap to the muzzle, and he asks anyone who might meet a small golden-haired boy in the desert to send him word.