The story follows a young prince who visits various planets, including Earth , and addresses themes of loneliness , friendship , love , and loss. Despite its style as a children's book, The Little Prince makes observations about life, adults, and human nature.
To determine if grownups are as enlightened as a child, the narrator shows them a picture depicting a boa constrictor that has eaten an elephant.
The adults always reply that the picture represents a hat, so he knows to only talk of "reasonable" things to them, rather than the fanciful. The narrator becomes an aircraft pilot, and one day, his plane crashes in the Sahara desert, far from civilization. The narrator must fix his airplane before his supply of water runs out. Here, he is greeted by a young boy nicknamed "the little prince. The prince asks the narrator to draw a sheep. The narrator first shows him the picture of the elephant inside the snake, which, to the narrator's surprise, the prince interprets correctly.
After three failed attempts at drawing a sheep, the frustrated narrator draws a crate, claiming the sheep is inside. This turns out to be the exact drawing the prince wanted. Over the course of days, while the narrator attempts to repair his plane, the prince recounts his life story. He used to live on a house-sized asteroid known as "B " on Earth. The asteroid has three minuscule volcanoes two active, and one dormant or extinct and various plants. The prince used to clean the volcanoes and weed unwanted seeds and sprigs that infested his soil, pulling out baobab trees that were constantly on the verge of overrunning the surface.
The prince wants a sheep to eat the undesirable plants, but worries it will also eat plants with thorns. The prince met a rose that grew on the asteroid. The rose exaggerated ailments to have the prince care for her. The prince made a screen and glass globe to protect her from the cold and wind, watered her, and kept the caterpillars off. Despite falling in love with the rose, the prince also began to feel that she was taking advantage of him and resolved to leave the planet to explore the rest of the universe.
