[1] Set in the 14th century, the play is the earliest fully developed dramatisation of the Don Juan legend.

[2] The play begins in Naples with Don Juan and the Duchess Isabela who, alone in her palace room, have just enjoyed a night of love together.

However, when Isabela wants to light a lamp, she realizes that he is not her lover, the Duke Octavio, and screams for help.

By the seashore of Tarragona, a peasant girl named Tisbea happens to find Don Juan and his servant, Catalinón, apparently washed up from a shipwreck.

Catalinón scolds him, but Don Juan reminds him that this is not his first seduction, and jokes that he has a medical condition in which he must seduce.

The King declares Don Juan banished from Seville and retracts his plans to have him marry Doña Ana.

The Marquis confesses, however, that he is actually in love with his cousin Doña Ana, but laments that she is arranged to marry someone else.

Don Juan leaves the house just in time to find Mota and give him his cape back and flees.

The next day, near Dos Hermanas, Don Juan happens upon a peasant wedding and takes a particular interest in the bride, Aminta.

Don Juan sends Catalinón to investigate, and he returns, horrified, followed by the ghost of Gonzalo in the form of the statue on his tomb.

Don Juan is initially frightened but quickly regains control of himself and calmly sits to dine while his servants cower around him.

Octavio then arrives and asks the King for permission to duel with Don Juan, and tells the truth of what has happened to Isabela to Diego, who was until now unaware of this particular misdeed of his son.

In a clap of thunder, the ghost, the tomb, and Don Juan disappear, leaving only Catalinón, who runs away in terror.