Elsa is the daughter of the King and Queen of Arendelle and sister of Anna. She is born with the power of cryokinesis causing her to produce ice, frost and snow, notably when scared or afraid. As a young woman, her parents travel on a mission to the Enchanted Forest, searching for a cure to Elsa's powers. However, they are involved in a storm and die in a shipwreck at Poseidon's Boneyard. Elsa discovers this five years later, leading Anna to venture to the Enchanted Forest to fulfill their parents' last mission. Elsa and Kristoff set off to the mountains to find an urn that the evil Hans holds to trap Elsa and become King of Arendelle. However, Hans finds the two and inadvertently releases the Snow Queen, who reveals to Elsa that she is her aunt as she is her mother's sister.
Some time later, she is placed into the urn by Anna (thanks to the Spell of Shattered Sight cast on her by Ingrid) and is trapped within the Dark One's vault by Rumplestiltskin, who had taken the urn to exchange for obtaining the Sorcerer's Hat from Ingrid. When Emma Swan and Captain Hook are dragged into a time portal to the past, they inadvertently bring Elsa to Storybrooke. Elsa soon becomes frightened, creating a snow monster to protect herself. Elsa then discovers Anna's necklace and vows to find her, placing an ice cave barrier around Storybrooke to prevent anyone escaping. David later helps her to control her magic and free herself and a trapped Emma from the cave. The inhabitants set out to help Elsa find her sister. Elsa soon discovers the Snow Queen, though she has no memories of who the Snow Queen is. Later on, Elsa discover Anna's necklace and uses it as a locator spell that lead them to a beach, where upon her wish, the necklace turned out to be a wishing star; after Elsa wished that Anna was alive, a trunk containing Anna and Kristoff turned up and they were reunited. Afterwards, she and Emma confront Ingrid from going through with her plan to destroy Storybrooke after their ribbons were removed, only to be stopped by Anna after she found the letter in which she read the letter from Queen Gerda that forgave Ingrid for what happened back in Arendelle. With Ingrid having killed herself, Elsa, along with Anna and Krisoff, return to Arendelle and reclaimed the kingdom from Hans, as well as restoring the memories of her mother and her sisters.
It was later revealed that Elsa made the ascension to queen and that one of her major actions as a result of the incident was to deal with Blackbeard by seizing The Jolly Roger, had it placed in a small bottle, and send it to a remote out of reach location within the Enchanted Forest along with a trapped Ariel. The ship and Ariel were later restored to normal after Ursula found the vessel while attempting to reclaim her stolen singing voice.