There’s no such thing as too many Vanessa Hudgenses, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to keep track of them all — especially when it comes to The Princess Switch series. This season, we welcome a third installment to the franchise that brought you three identical royals (all played by Hudgens) and their identity-stealing ways. With another royal Christmas event hanging in the balance, the three women must once again switch places to save the day. 

So, to keep these holiday hijinks straight, you’ll need a Princess Switch 1 and 2 recap — replete with a character guide and explanations of each princess switch — before pressing play on The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star. Let us refresh your memory on the main players and everything they’ve been up to so far.

Setting the scene:

While the film starts in Chicago with Stacy (aka Hudgens No.1), The Princess Switch mostly takes place in the fictional European kingdom of Belgravia (right next door to The Christmas Prince’s Aldovia), where Margaret (aka Hudgens No. 2) holds the title of Duchess of Montenaro.  

Meet the characters:

Stacy

Stacy is the first protagonist we’re introduced to in The Princess Switch. Played by Hudgens, she’s a single, career-focused woman from Chicago who runs a bakery with her best friend, Kevin (Nick Sagar). Fresh off a brutal breakup and hoping to take her mind off of her former beau, Stacy decides that she, Kevin and Kevin’s tween daughter Olivia (Mia Lloyd) are going to head to the Kingdom of Belgravia for Christmas to participate in a holiday baking competition. And this is where our story begins.

Lady Margaret

Lady Margaret, the second Hudgens that we meet, is introduced to viewers as the Duchess of Montenaro. Margaret’s on the cusp of fulfilling her destiny of becoming a royal — thanks to an arranged marriage with Prince Edward (Sam Palladio) — but she dreams of having a normal life, free from obligation.

Kevin

Stacy’s business partner and confidant Kevin is a sweet single father who is clearly crushing on Stacy. But he’s respectful enough not to act on it, and he’s got his hands already full with his daughter, Olivia, who dreams of becoming a ballerina and immediately falls in love with Belgravia.

Prince Edward

Prince Edward is the mild-mannered Prince of Belgravia who doesn’t object to an arranged marriage with Lady Margaret, but he also doesn’t want to marry a woman he barely knows. And his good-natured attempts at getting to know Margaret might end up backfiring…

Fiona

Our third Hudgens, Fiona, doesn’t come in until The Princess Switch: Switched Again, but she’s definitely a need-to-know character. Fiona is Margaret’s (much blonder) heiress cousin who’s a known partier. She’s more of a socialite than a royal, obsessed with the spoils of a luxury lifestyle, but her money problems drive her to commit some pretty heinous acts.

Now that we’ve established the players, let’s explain some of the key plot points — or princess switches, if you will — that occur in the first two films.

The Switches:

Princess Switch No. 1

In the first film, The Princess Switch, Stacy and Margaret (who look identical because they are... both Vanessa Hudgens) meet by chance behind the scenes of the Belgravia baking competition. Struck by seeing Stacy for the first time, Margaret suddenly has an idea. Wanting to escape her royal duties — and her impending marriage — she offers Stacy a deal: She’ll help Olivia, Kevin’s daughter, get into a ballet program in Belgravia if Stacy agrees to switch places with her for a few days and let Margaret enjoy life as a commoner. Stacy’s hesitant but relents after Margaret promises that her fiancé, Prince Edward, will be out of town during their switch. 

During the switch, however, Stacy (as Margaret) is surprised when Prince Edward cancels his plans in an effort to bond with his betrothed. And she’s even more surprised when she starts to fall for him. Meanwhile, Margaret is having the time of her life bonding with Olivia, who discovers her secret but agrees to let the switch continue, and develops a crush on Kevin. 

But before they know it, it’s time to switch back. Stacy has a baking competition to win, and Margaret has a prince to marry, and the two are determined to return to their real lives. Thanks to some interference from Edward’s royal parents, though, Margaret and Stacy are forced to own up to their ruse and come clean about the switch. Margaret then tells Kevin that she loves him, while Stacy’s less certain about her romance with Edward. She doesn’t know if she has what it takes to be a princess, but he convinces her to give the princess lifestyle a try. In the end, Edward says that, if they’re still together next Christmas, he will marry Stacy. 

The last scene of the film is one year later, and Stacy’s marrying Edward, making her the Princess of Belgravia.

Princess Switch No. 2 It’s been a few years since the original switch when we remeet Stacy and Lady Margaret, who are now best friends and reunite for the holidays in The Princess Switch: Switched Again. Stacy has fully embraced her new role as the Princess of Belgravia, while Margaret is preparing to ascend to the throne of Montenaro. Feeling isolated by her royal duties, Margaret breaks things off with Kevin, who’s still running the bakery in Chicago, but Stacy decides to invite him to Margaret’s coronation — and if Kevin and Margaret happen to realize how perfect they are together, so be it. 

In Montenaro, Kevin, Stacy, Edward and Olivia help Margaret make her castle feel like home and decorate it for her holiday ball — all part of her coronation celebration. But at the ball, everyone’s surprised by the arrival of yet another princess look-alike: Fiona. As it turns out, Fiona is a distant cousin of Margaret’s who looks just like her, only with blond hair. Seeing her cousin about to become queen while she drowns in debt, Fiona decides to abduct Margaret and take her place on coronation day so that she can empty the country’s treasury — and then run away. 

But here’s where things get a little complicated: Margaret’s feeling so overwhelmed by the upcoming coronation — and is so busy planning for it — she hasn’t had any time to reconnect with Kevin. So she and Stacy decide to once again make the switch so that “Stacy” (who’s really now Margaret) can spend an afternoon with Kevin. Fiona doesn’t know this and accidentally ends up abducting Stacy instead of Margaret as part of her plan to replace Margaret on coronation day.

At first, Fiona tries her best to pretend to be Margaret, and even sabotages Margaret’s love life by sending Kevin away, but when the real Margaret arrives — still dressed as “Stacy” — she realizes what has happened. Margaret comes clean with Edward, who’s left out of the ruse entirely, and they rush to find Stacy and get her home, leaving Fiona free to work on her evil plans. She and Antonio, Margaret’s power-hungry assistant who offers to help Fiona in return for half her loot, plan to move up the coronation to that night, leaving Margaret and Stacy rushing to beat them to the church and reveal the switch. 

Margaret and Stacy arrive just in time to stop the coronation, and Margaret takes her rightful place on the throne while Fiona ends up in handcuffs. And as queen, her first royal act is to rush to the airport and propose to Kevin to keep him from boarding a plane home. In fact, she’s so eager to tie the knot, she has a priest — who just happens to be waiting for his flight — marry them in the middle of the airport. 

FAQs: 

Who are all the identical women? There’s Queen Margaret of Montenaro, who’s (now) married to Kevin; Princess Stacy of Belgravia, who’s married to Prince Edward; and Fiona, the criminal cousin of Margaret. 

How many times have they actually switched? So far, only twice, unless you count the time Fiona pretended to be Margaret, in which case it’s three times total.

Is there a reason Stacy and Margaret look so alike? Not that we know of! Presumably, they share some distant relation, but how exactly they are related remains to be seen.