有一座城市，这里的许多人过着困苦不堪的日子。燕群都飞去埃及过冬了，但有一只燕子掉队了。她看到了已故“快乐王子”的雕像。因为这位王子住在一座不允许悲伤进入的宫殿，所以他从未体验过真正的悲伤。身处高高的纪念碑，看到生活在贫穷中的人们受的各种苦，快乐王子让燕子拿走他剑上的红宝石、他眼睛里的蓝宝石，以及覆盖他身体的金叶子，把这些送给穷人。冬天来临，快乐王子身上所有美好的东西都被拿走了。当那只燕子因为他无私的举动和严寒而失去生命时，他那颗由铅打造的心碎了。后来，雕像被拆、被丢到熔炉里融化，那颗破碎的心和燕子尸体被扔到了垃圾场。天使来到这个城市带走了最美的两样东西——铅心和燕子的尸体，上帝让他们复活，在天堂里面永生。

In a town where a lot of poor people suffer and where there are a lot of miseries, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter, meets the statue of the late ‘Happy Prince’, who in reality has never experienced true sorrow, for he lived in a palace where sorrow isn’t allowed to enter. Viewing various scenes of people suffering in poverty from his tall monument, the Happy Prince asks the swallow to take the ruby from his hilt, the sapphires from his eyes, and the golden leaf covering his body to give to the poor. As the winter comes and the Happy Prince is stripped of all of his beauty, his lead heart breaks when the swallow dies as a result of his selfless deeds and severe cold. The statue is then brought down from the pillar and melted in a furnace leaving behind the broken heart and the dead swallow and they are thrown in a dust heap. These are taken up to heaven by an angel that has deemed them the two most precious things in the city. This is affirmed by God and they live forever in his city of gold and garden of paradise.