During the mid-14th century, in Florence, some young people of rich families are fleeing the city haunted by the plague.

They take refuge in a large country house, and spend their time there telling stories.

She falls ill and her husband's mother fears that she has plague and will infect others in the household.

He invites a group of friends, including Nicoluccio, to see his chosen bride.

He poses the question to the gathered group: a loyal servant falls ill and his patron abandons him.

In the second story: in Florence the oaf Calandrino apprentices in an art studio of a famous painter.

Two of his fellow apprentices trick him by telling him of a stone that has the power to make people invisible.

Calendrino returns, carrying this stone, thinking that he is invisible, stealing gold from his neighbors' pouches, leering at a young woman, kicking the cane out from under the master painter.

Soon after, the rich husband dies, and she falls in love with a handsome young man, a metal smith who works for her father.

The father finds out, becomes enraged, and has him killed, later serving his heart to Ghismunda in a goblet of her lover's making.

So, in her hurry to dress, the mother superior confuses her headgear for the long johns of her lover.

At the end of the story, the mother superior is forced to pardon the sisters, and declares that God made everyone to have elements of sinners and saints within their souls, so each of them can bring lovers to the convent, as long as the news of the adulterers does not leave.