Mother duck hatched her eggs and ducklings, but one egg was much larger and took longer to hatch. The duckling that emerged from the largest egg was very large and ugly compared to its siblings. The other farmyard animals laughed at and rejected the ugly duckling. Feeling lonely and miserable, he ran away. Later, he saw beautiful swans and wished to be like them. Over time, he grew into a graceful swan himself, realizing that he had been persecuted while ugly but was now the most beautiful of all the birds.