The story begins in Ancient Greece, in the times of Gods and Heroes. It starts in a small town at the edge of the country. People here grow olives, catch fish, and hunt deer to sell their produce to bigger cities. Here the main heroine Chrosta lives on her tiny farm.
She is a young Greek woman, dressed in a simple light gown, with her dark, messy hair brushed away from her face. Her hands are strong and covered in dirt from all the hard work she does around the farm. She feels connected to the Earth, and whenever she works with plants, she can always make them flourish. “Everything happens in due time,” her mother used to say, and the girl took that advice to heart. Her neighbor, Maramenos, is a man of her age. With golden curls and bright eyes, he catches every young woman’s glance. He comes from a wealthy farming family but never has to work a day in his life. His family’s servants do the hard work for them at the farm. The young man has a sharp mind and even a sharper tongue. When he can, he sweet-talks his way out of work, and when Maramenos cannot, he cheats.
One day something unexpected happens: both Chrosta and Maramenos see Demeter approach them in their dreams. She tells them there is a task: and if they succeed, she will bless them immensely. Both agree: Chrosta out of devotion and Maramenos out of pride. She tells them to come to a small shrine in the middle of the wilderness and pray there. The next day they leave, and dryads and satyrs follow them on their way to the shrine.
Maramenos is intrigued, but Chrosta ignores them. Eventually, they reach the shrine at a brisk of dawn. The young woman sits down and prays to the Gods, but Maramenos falls asleep under a big tree’s shade. Eventually, Demeter appears in front of them at the shrine. She tells them that she is soon descending into the underworld and cannot protect her favorite forest from the cold of winter. Trees die when the snow comes, and then she needs to replant and regrow them the following spring. It is a tiresome cycle, and it pains her to see forests withered and dead.
Demeter gives each of them a bucket of paint and a brush. The Goddess tells them to paint every leaf on every tree in this forest by the end of autumn. Demeter blesses the paint to let trees sleep rather than die in winter, but only if it is applied to each and single leaf three times. The trees will lose their leaves, so the cold will not bother them. She divides the forest in two for each hero. Maramenos boasts that he will paint every single leaf before autumn ends. Chrosta takes the paint and promises to fulfill her duty. Demeter tells them that she will be back in spring and then disappears.
Chrosta starts painting, but the man tosses the brush aside. He has a plan: instead of coloring each leaf three times, he rips them off until all his trees are barren. The heroine frowns at his tomfoolery but keeps doing her work: she must cover every bit in the paint. She painstakingly moves her brush, never shifting her attention. Although she is not a painter, this feels familiar to her, and so she paints leaves with the same determination and patience she attends her crops. Meanwhile, Maramenos runs with the dryads and satyrs, dancing and drinking the day away. Days fly by, and winter grows closer until it is the last day of autumn.
All the trees Chrosta painted orange she then painted red, and after brown. Her hands are covered in bruises and scratches, but her face shines with a smile. The young man panics and grabs the bucket of his paint. He splashes it on the leaves under his trees, and they haphazardly change their colors. The air grows colder, and first snowflakes start falling: it is Boreas, bringer of winter. He flies through the forest and blows leaves off Chrosta’s trees. Maramenos laughs at her, saying that all the work she did was for nothing, as the wind did all of it anyway. The young woman shakes her head and says, “Everything happens in due time.” They return home and wait for the spring to come.
When the snow melts away, they come back. Trees that Chrosta so thoroughly painted are still alive with young green buds growing on their branches; meanwhile, Maramenos’ trees are all grey, cracked, and dead. A bright light shines upon them, and Demeter returns with her daughter. When Demeter looks at Maramenos, her voice breaks with anger: “For your smart wits and cheating ways, I shall give you a place you can always call home.”
Demeter then turns and smiles at Chrosta: “For your hard work and honesty, I shall let you stay by my side and color the leaves every autumn.” The Goddess turns Maramenos into an earthworm, so he may forever find recluse under the trees he doomed. Dryads dress Chrosta in a beautiful gown and embed her hair with leaf-like gems. Her hands are still covered in dirt: it is a sign of pride, not shame.
From then on, trees no longer die in the winter when Demeter descended into the underworld. Instead, a young a hardworking woman paints them each year to help them sleep, and a cheating Maramenos has to live under roots to this day. Cheaters never prosper, and hard work is the proper way to happiness.