The story is about the a grey 'duck' that is very differnent in terms of apperance compared to his siblings. A mother duck hatches her eggs and, while most of her ducklings are normal, one is grey, too large, and too clumsy to fit in among the others. The mother duck tried to accept him but the entire farm does not accept him, after a period of ill-treatment, he decided to leave.
'The ugly duckling' is then being taken care of by an old woman in her poor cottage, but her cat and her hen will not accept him and he is forced to set off once again on his own. He wanders for the entire winter, for no one will take him in. He nearly freezed to death on several occasions, but was saved by a hunter. After a while, he eventually wandered to the wild again.

By the end of winter, he is miraculously still alive. He comes to a pond in a park, where white swans are swimming. He is drawn to their beauty, he then approach them. To his surprise, the beautiful swans accept him. Gazing at his own reflection, he sees that he too is a swan. The children declare that he is the most beautiful swan of them all, yet he is not proud.

I learnt that it would be tough for an 'outsider' to find him/her place in the society, so we must learnt to accept everyone, even if he/she is the minority. I have also leant that we must not look down on someone if he is weak in some areas, as he might turn out to be the next 'ugly duckling', turining into a gorgeous swan in the future. I leant that we must not be proud, even if we are beautiful, handsome etc, just like the ugly duckling. Because of all that the ugly duckling suffered, he now appreciates his happiness so much more. From that i also leant that we must cherish what we have now at the present.