Titania, queen of the fairies, has been invited to bless the marriage between Theseus, duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. She has brought with her from India a young boy entrusted to her by a devoted follower. Taken by his beauty, Oberon, king of the fairies, wants to make the boy his page, but Titania refuses to part with him.

To avenge this perceived injury, a jealous Oberon calls upon his favorite henchman, Puck, a.k.a. Robin Goodfellow, to bring him a special flower, the juice from which Oberon will drop into Titania’s eyes, so that she will “madly dote upon the next living creature” she sees. While the queen is under the flower’s potent charms, Oberon will convince her to give up the changeling boy.

However, Oberon isn’t all bad. With the best of intentions, he instructs Puck to spread the potion on the eyes of a mortal Athenian man who does not return the love of the woman who loves him. Puck nonetheless manages to anoint the wrong man, mockingly transforms an actor into a donkey-headed half-man, half-ass, who ultimately becomes the love interest of the queen, and generally creates confusion in every direction. As dawn approaches, Puck has a lot of things to make right.