Thurber manipulates the simple forms of fairy tales, with their conventional characters, frequent three-part structures, and love-quest plots, to produce a richly entertaining story with a serious moral intention.

Like "Snow-White" and "The Sleeping Beauty," The White Deer tells how a handsome prince breaks the spell that binds a beautiful princess. Within this structure Thurber includes the three perilous labors, quests to earn a maiden's hand. Each quest serves the overall theme of faith in love, testing the quester's suitability. Thurber places over this entire structure yet another, the renewal of the waste land by means of the rebirth of love that leads to marriage.

In addition to devising an intricate structure out of simple elements in support of a thematic goal, the tale abounds with wordplay. On their way to find the fabled white deer, Clode and his sons meet a wizard who plays tricks...