The music shows the influence of Debussy and Richard Strauss, as well as Wagner (the introduction echoes the prelude of Das Rheingold).
Bartók used a scenario by the poet Béla Balázs, which had appeared in the influential literary journal Nyugat in 1912.
This work contains the largest orchestration which Bartók ever scored for: A prince falls in love with a princess, but is stopped from reaching her by a fairy who makes a forest and a stream rise against him.
To attract the princess' attention, the prince hangs his cloak on a staff and fixes a crown and locks of his hair to it.
The fairy takes pity on him as he sleeps, dresses him in finery and reduces the wooden prince to lifelessness again.