At Royal Prep Sofia's in art class when the fairies present everyone in attendance with a project to build a model of their ideal castle. Due to enormity of the project the princes and princesses are teamed up: Amber and Hildegarde, James and Xandar, and Sofia and Vivian. Having never heard of a Princess Vivian before Amber gestures to the back of the class where Sofia sees a girl peeking out from behind an easel. Sofia greets her enthusiastically but the response is very quiet and brief. Regarding their need to work on this project together, while Vivian is very reluctant to go over to the castle of Enchancia, Sofia opts to go to Vivian's home. She begins to have seconds thoughts, though, when Amber and her clique start to mention some rumours about Vivian's home life that paints a macabre gothic picture.
Back at the castle of Enchancia Sofia offers to assist James and Xandar but they're rolling well and have no need for assistance. Sofia then talks with her mother about the freakish image the rumours have conjured and is advised to actually go over to Vivian's castle and see for herself whether there's anything to those rumours. In her room Sofia wonders about what preparations she should make should those rumours turn out to be true, which leads Clover to offer his support and she accepts, despite Robin's disbelief in the rabbit's efficacy.
Upon arriving at Vivian's place Clover hides in Sofia's bag while she takes a look round. The rather more gothic architecture compared to her own home is not particularly reassuring but Sofia readily determines that it's not a cave. The resident queen comes out to greet her and Sofia quickly recognises that she's just as human as she is. Meeting up with Vivian Sofia's led further into the castle, where she finds no evidence of bats but still finds the grotesques on the walls a tad unsettling. Clover shifting in her bag blows his cover but Vivian makes no objections to his presence and tells Sofia she also has a pet. This is one rumour that turns out to be true; it's a pet dragon!
A small cheerful female dragon who Sofia quickly warms to. Sofia suggests she and Clover could get to know each other while she and Vivian work on their arts project. Said dragon eagerly introduces herself as Crackle and offers Clover some brunch, giving him an incentive to hang around despite her periodic bursts of firebreath. In the meantime Sofia discusses what they could include in their ideal castle, but Vivian doesn't offer much input. Sofia then suggests Vivian show her her favourite places in the existing castle, leading to the music room. It turns out Vivian's an avid musician with a particular preference for the mandolin. Vivian's playing provides inspiration for both of them to include more material in their model.
The next day Sofia and Vivian have lunch together while discussing further features in their model when Amber's clique enter the dining hall, causing Vivian to freak and run. Sofia mentions that she's just shy and is actually a very amiable princess. Back in her suite Sofia talks to Clover about Vivian's inability to socialise, causing him alarm as he concludes that she's going back to Vivian's place.
Eventually Sofia persuades him to join her, to Crackle's utter joy that he returned. As Sofia talks with Vivian about how she'd have to participate in the show-and-tell aspect of their project Clover discovers that Crackle is something of a gourmet chef with her firebreath; this in turn inspires Sofia with a way to get Vivian to come out of her shell.
The day for the royal pairings to show-off their ideal castles comes round. Amber and Hildegarde opted to build two big models dedicated to their favourite garments, James and Xandar have built a castle around a cannon and then Sofia brings her model up with Vivian. It's the smallest model yet seen but, with Vivian's musical talent with the mandolin and their duet about all the extra features included, they garner the most enthusiastic response. In the end one of Amber's friends suggests that Vivian join the school band.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Accidental Truth: Amber, Hildegard, and Clio tell Sofia some rumors about Vivian: she lives in a cave with bats, her parents are gnomes, and she has a pet dragon. When Sofia goes to Vivian's castle, she sees that the first two rumors are lies, but Vivian actually does have a pet dragon, albeit a small one.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: As Sofia and Vivian are planning on how to decorate their dream castle, Vivian suggests adding mermaids to the castle moat, but changes her mind to hippos, and then mermaid hippos.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In this episode, Hugo is seen wearing his derby uniform (except for his helmet) despite not actually doing any flying derby. In his later appearances, he's seen wearing a tuxedo when he's not riding.
- Face Your Fears: Vivian had to learn this from Sofia, which she manages to do when presenting the dream castle to the class.
- The Ghost: Fauna mentioned a student named Rupert, but we never saw him...or at least learned which of the unnamed princes in Royal Prep he was.
- Shrinking Violet: What Vivian is known as; Sofia took it her mission to help her break out of her shell and socialize.
- Triumphant Reprise: "All You Need" returns in a more abridged and excitable manner as Vivian manages to face her fears and present the dream castle with Sofia.
