Giovanni, recently returned to Parma from university in Bologna, has developed an incestuous passion for his sister Annabella and the play opens with his discussing this ethical problem with Friar Bonaventura.

Hippolita, a past lover of Soranzo, verbally attacks him, furious with him for letting her send her husband, Richardetto, on a dangerous journey she believed would result in his death so that they could be together, then declining his vows and abandoning her.

Once Putana reveals that it's Giovanni, Vasques gets bandits to tie her up and put out her eyes as punishment for the terrible acts she has willingly overseen and encouraged.

The friar delivers the letter but Giovanni is too arrogant to believe he can be harmed and ignores advice to decline the invitation to Soranzo's birthday feast.

He then enters the feast, at which all remaining characters are present, wielding a dagger on which his sister's heart is skewered and tells everyone of the incestuous affair.

Following the massacre, the cardinal orders Putana to be burnt at the stake, Vasques to be banished and the church to seize all the wealth and property belonging to the dead.

Richardetto finally reveals his true identity to Donado and the play ends with the cardinal saying of Annabella "who could not say, 'Tis pity she's a whore?".

Critic Mark Stavig wrote, "Instead of stressing the villainy, Ford portrays Giovanni as a talented, virtuous, and noble man who is overcome by a tumultuous, unavoidable passion that brings about his destruction".

[1] Since the mid-twentieth century, scholars and critics have generally shown more appreciation of the complexities and ambiguities of the work,[9] though the treatment of the main subject still remains "unsettling", in the words of Michael Billington, reviewing the 2014 production for The Guardian, because Ford refuses "to either condone or condemn incest: he simply presents it as an unstoppable force".

"Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)", from the same album, loosely recounts the play's events from Annabella's decision to marry Soranzo to Giovanni's reception of her note written in blood.