Pantalone remembers how 18 years ago, King Tartaglia left for the wars, leaving his wicked mother, Tartagliona, in control of the government.

Tartagliona buried alive her daughter-in-law, Queen Ninetta, and ordered Pantalone to kill her twin children, Barbarina and Renzo.

Pantalone instead wrapped them tightly in oilcloth and threw them in the river, tricking Tartagliona by showing her the hearts of two young goats.

Yet Pantalone now hears Brighella the soothsayer utter a prophecy which predicts that the King, the Queen, and the twins will return, along with other fantastical events.

Renzo has been reading philosophy books and informs the doubtful Barberina that humans are motivated purely by selfishness; they must avoid all pleasure and be sceptical of all friendship that they encounter.

He tells them they must find their true parents, that the green bird is key to the mystery, that if they need help they should call on him, and that if they throw a pebble at the palace they will become rich.

Then Tartagliona, following the advice of Brighella, fills Barberina with the desire for the ultimate in unattainable possessions: the legendary singing apple and dancing waters.

Renzo finds the singing apple and dancing waters guarded by the fairy Serpentina, who sends a lion, a tiger, and skeletons to frighten them away.

Back in the mansion, Renzo dresses the statue he loves, Pompea, in clothes and she now speaks; but she warns him against lust and vice, and requests to be left alone.

But Calmon appears, praises her recognition of her error, and advises her to rescue the bird by reading words from a scroll while standing on a precise spot.

King Tartaglia is desperate to marry Barbarina, but the green bird reveals the true parentage of the twins, and that Queen Ninetta is imprisoned below the palace.

Gozzi wrote that under the surface of this silly play was a critique of what he considered to be the dangerous ideas of Enlightenment philosophy as propounded by thinkers such as Helvetius, Rousseau and Voltaire.

According to Gozzi, the philosophical ideas in the play became a topic of discussion in Venice, so that even the most austere monks would attend productions in disguise.

[3] In 1994, as a commission for the Batignano Festival, British composer Jonathan Dove used Gozzi's tale as the basis for his opera The Little Green Swallow or L'augellino belverde, set 18 years after The Love of Three Oranges.

In April 2016, the Fountain School of Performing Arts at Dalhousie University put on a successful production set in 1950s Cuba.