The play is set in Alicante, Spain. It opens outside a church, where Alsemero, a nobleman from Valencia, meets Beatrice-Joanna. Alsemero and Beatrice instantly fall in love. Alsemero wants to marry Beatrice and decides to postpone his travels. This surprises Alsemero’s friend Jasperino, who has never known Alsemero to cancel travel plans or be tempted by love.

Beatrice enters, and Alsemero proclaims his love to her. Beatrice warns him not to be impulsive, since “Our eyes are sentinels unto our judgments...But they are rash sometimes, and tell us wonders / Of common things” (1.1.75-78). Beatrice was betrothed to Alonzo de Piraquo only five days earlier, at her father’s command. She now wants to marry Alsemero, although she cannot defy her father.

De Flores arrives, startling Beatrice. De Flores is a servant to Beatrice’s father Vermandero. De Flores is obsessively in love with Beatrice, although Beatrice despises him and compares him to a “basilisk” (1.1.117). Vermandero enters, and Beatrice encourages her father to invite Alsemero to their castle. Vermandero is pleased to meet Alsemero, having known Alsemero’s father as a soldier. Alsemero’s father died in battle against the Hollanders.

Vermandero tells Beatrice her wedding to Alonzo will take place that week, which is too sudden for Beatrice’s liking.