Eager to make her way in the world, hairdresser Joy Miller (Fran Drescher) gets her chance when she's sent to a modern once-upon-a-time land called Slovetzia to tutor the three children of gruff, widowed dictator Boris Pochenko (Timothy Dalton). Joy thinks she's been hired as a beautician. Boris thinks she's been hired as an able science teacher. Science or not, chemistry of another sort begins to work its magic. Joy's spirited openness blows the cobwebs off tradition-bound Slovetzia and her resourcefulness gives Pochenko's heart a makeover...or does it?