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Kit reluctantly agrees to his father's wishes, which are seconded heartily by the king's right-hand man, the Grand Duke (Stellan Skarsgard), but suggests that the entire kingdom be invited to the upcoming palace ball instead of merely the nobility and upper-class.
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However, as the King is growing increasingly ill, he believes that Kit must marry quickly and properly in order to take the throne in the near future. While the King still insists that Kit must marry a princess for the good of the realm, he sympathizes with his son's desire to break the occasional tradition. Back at the palace, Prince Kit tells his father, the King (Derek Jacobi) about the pretty girl he met in the woods. While taken aback at Ella's odd request, Kit is smitten with her compassionate spirit, but is called back by his hunting party before he can learn her name. While Ella is charmed by the handsome stranger, whom she does not recognize as the king's son, she scolds him for hunting a helpless animal and requests that he refrain from harming the stag. Her plight is noticed by the young prince (Richard Madden), out hunting with his men, who manages to stop her horse and introduces himself as Kit, an "apprentice" from the palace. She encounters a stag, fleeing from an approaching hunting party, and her horse takes off in fright while Ella clings on for dear life. After a particularly cruel and hurtful incident (during which her stepfamily dubs her with the infamous nickname "Cinderella"), Ella rides her horse into the nearby woods to calm herself down. Ella's days of servitude grow increasingly dismal, as the shock of her father's death wears off and she realizes she no longer has a loving family. After dismissing all the household servants, Lady Tremaine shifts the entire workload to Ella, who is so miserable that she views the endless chores as almost welcome distractions from her grief. Resentful of her new husband for leaving them with no source of income, she takes out her rage on her stepdaughter. Lady Tremaine is also upset, but for solely financial reasons. The farmer gives Ella the branch she had requested, along with his condolences. Despite this unjust development, Ella remains optimistic and continues to live by her mother's mantra: "Have courage and be kind." Some time later, Ella is given tragic news by a local farmer: her father had taken ill and died on his journey. Ella is then relocated to the attic, where she finds that her mouse friends also reside. No sooner had her husband departed, Lady Tremaine manipulates Ella into giving up her bedroom to Anastasia and Drisella. He bids her a loving farewell the following morning. While Anastasia and Drisella ask for parasols and lace, Ella merely requests the first branch that brushes her father's head as he travels. Ella's father prepares to depart on another business trip, and asks Ella and her stepsisters what presents they would like him to bring back. Lady Tremaine proves to be a prideful and cold woman with rather unsavory friends, while Anastasia and Drisella bicker constantly and only seem to bond over their disdain for Ella.
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The three women, along with their ill-tempered cat Lucifer, move into the manor house with Ella and her father. Ella's new stepmother, Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett) is a stately widow with two daughters of Ella's age: Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drisella (Sophie McShera). When her father announces his plan to remarry, Ella gives him her sincere blessing and hopes for his happiness in this new chapter of his life. On her deathbed, she tells her daughter that power and magic stem from kindness, and to always "have courage and be kind." Over the next several years, Ella (now Lily James) carries on a comfortable life with her loving father, though they both miss her mother terribly. Ella and her father are grief-stricken when Ella's mother falls gravely ill. Ella considers the resident farm animals to be her dear friends, and talks to them often. Ella's mother (Hayley Atwell) encourages her to believe in magic, courage, kindness, and hope. Her father (Ben Chaplin), a wealthy merchant, is often away on business trips, but always makes the most of his time with his family.