Belle befriends the castle's servants,including candelabra/footman Lumiere, mantelclock/majordomoCogsworth, feather duster/maid Plumette, teapot/housekeeper Mrs. Potts, and her son, Chip, who is now a teacup. They invite her to a spectacular dinner.
When she wanders into the forbidden west wing and finds the rose, the Beast scares her into the woods. Belle is ambushed off-guard by the wolves from earlier, but the Beast attempts to rescue her, injuring himself in the process. As Belle nurses his wounds, a spark develops between them.
The Beast shows Belle a gift from the enchantress, a book that transports readers wherever they want. Belle uses the book to visit her childhood home in Paris, where she discovers a plague doctor's mask and realizes that she and her father were forced to leave when her mother died from the Bubonic plague, the one thing her father couldn't tell her all those years.
In Villeneuve, Maurice fails to convince the other villagers of the Beast and Belle's imprisonment. Gaston, seeing rescuing Belle as an opportunity to win her hand in marriage, agrees to help Maurice. When Maurice learns of his ulterior motive and rejects him, Gaston abandons him to be eaten by the wolves. Maurice is rescued by the town hermit Agathe, but when he tells the townsfolk of Gaston's crime and is unable to provide solid evidence, Gaston convinces them to send Maurice to an insane asylum.
After sharing a romantic dance with the Beast, Belle discovers her father's predicament using a magic mirror. The Beast releases her to save Maurice, giving her the mirror to remember him with.
Arriving back to the town, Belle reveals the Beast in the mirror much to the shock of the townsfolk, proving her father's sanity. Realizing that Belle loves the Beast, a jealous Gaston claims she has been charmed by dark magic and has her thrown into the asylum carriage with her father. He rallies the villagers to follow him to the castle to slay the Beast before he curses the whole village.