The filmmakers play themselves in animated drawings when they sit in a sofa. The daughter has an idea to record the old folksong Stephen Stableboy” for some artistic purpose. She wants her mother to sing.The mother finds the song extremely boring but the daughter insists. Animated scenes show how Stephen water his horses and sits up on the horse Apelgrey. Stephen rides in on the table in front of the sofa while the boring , in the mothers opinion , song goes on. The mother has to repeat the verses several times and Stephen has to back and start again. They move gradually into the landscape of the song and find themselves looking at Stephen when he meets the bear and and when he ”swift and unafraid” walks in the ”trait of the ugly wolf ”. In the end the mother and daughter gets transformed. The daughter becomes the X-mas pig and the mother becomes Stephen himself who is singing the last verse. Finally they get back inte reality in the sofa but the daughter wants the mother to sing with more feeling.