A ship is caught up in a violent storm. The Master and the Boatswain are trying to control the ship, shouting ‘Fall to’t yarely, or we run ourselves aground’.

Miranda watches the ship in the storm and is worried about the people on board. She asks her father Prospero to calm the storm and he then tells her the story of how they ended up on the island 12 years ago. He explains ‘Thy father was the Duke of Milan’ but ‘in my false brother / Awaked an evil nature’. His brother Antonio stole his power and had Prospero and Miranda cast out to sea in a boat.

Ariel reports to Prospero that he created the storm and carried out all of Prospero’s instructions. He tells him that all the people on board, including Prospero’s brother Antonio, King Alonso of Naples and Alonso’s son Ferdinand, have been washed up on different parts of the island. Prospero tells him ‘there’s more work’ to do but that if he does it ‘after two days / I will discharge thee’ and set Ariel free.

Prospero takes Miranda to visit his slave Caliban. Miranda doesn’t want to see him, saying ‘Tis a villain sir, / I do not love to look on’. Caliban is scared of Prospero's magical powers.

Ariel arranges for the shipwrecked Prince Ferdinand and Miranda to meet, and they fall in love. This is part of Prospero’s plan but he does not want to make things too easy for Ferdinand so he pretends to be angry and uses his magic to make him a prisoner.

Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian and Gonzalo are all safely washed up on the shore of the island, along with two other nobles. Alonso is worried that his son Ferdinand has drowned in the shipwreck, saying ‘what strange fish / Hath made his meal on thee?’

Ariel uses magic to send all the nobles into a deep sleep except for Sebastian and Antonio. Antonio suggests Sebastian kills Alonso while he’s asleep so he can be King of Naples but Ariel wakes everyone up before they can succeed.

Caliban sees Alonso’s jester Trinculo and he tries to hide under his cloak. Trinculo sees Caliban hiding and wonders whether he’s ‘a man or a fish?’ He decides ‘this is no fish, but an islander, that hath lately suffered by a thunderbolt’ and ‘creeps under his gabardine’ for shelter from the storm.

Stephano, Alonso’s butler, escaped the ship ‘upon a butt of sack which the sailors heaved o’erboard’ and is drunk. He sees Trinculo and Caliban under the cloak and thinks they are ‘some monster of the isle with four legs’. They reveal themselves and Caliban promises to serve Stephano as his new master.

Prospero has set Ferdinand the task of removing ‘Some thousand of these logs and pile them up’. Ferdinand says he would hate this work but thinking of Miranda ‘makes my labours pleasures’. She tries to help him and Prospero, who watches them secretly, is delighted they are in love.

Caliban has been talking to Stephano and Trinculo. He doesn’t like the jester and Trinculo calls Caliban a ‘most ignorant monster’ but Stephano sides with Caliban and wants to hear more about the ‘tyrant’ and ‘sorcerer’ Prospero. Caliban persuades Stephano that he should kill Prospero and rule the island in his place. As they set off to find Prospero, Ariel distracts them with magical music.

Alonso and his nobles are tired and hungry from looking for Ferdinand. The island's spirits set out a banquet for them but just as they are about to eat, Ariel appears as a harpy and says they are being punished for harming Prospero: ‘you ‘mongst men / Being most unfit to live’ whose ‘foul deed’ caused the storm and the loss of Ferdinand. The harpy then vanishes.

Sebastian and Antonio go mad after seeing the harpy so Gonzalo and the nobles follow them to make sure they are safe.

Prospero has revealed to Ferdinand and Miranda that he was just testing their love and he is happy for them to get married. He calls Ariel and the spirits of the island to perform a show in which three goddesses - Juno, Ceres and Iris - bless the marriage.

Prospero suddenly interrupts the show because he remembers ‘the beast Caliban and his confederates’ are plotting to kill him. Ariel has already led Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano around the island so Prospero sends him to ‘catch these thieves’ by hanging out clothes for them.

Caliban leads Stephano and Trinculo, telling them to ‘tread softly’ because they are near Prospero’s cell, but Stephano and Trinculo complain about being wet and smelly and having lost their bottle of wine. Then they see the clothing Ariel has hung out to trap them and Trinculo says ‘O worthy Stephano – look what a wardrobe here is for thee!’ Suddenly, the spirits of the island appear as hunting dogs and chase Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo away.

Ariel tells Prospero that he has ‘confined’ the nobles and they ‘cannot budge’ until Prospero releases them from the spell. Prospero believes ‘the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance’ and promises not to punish them further if they are sorry. He sends Ariel to bring them to him.

In a soliloquy, Prospero describes the magical powers he has to raise storms and wake the dead and announces that he will give them all up, saying ‘this rough magic I here abjure’.

Ariel brings Prospero the nobles and he forgives them while they are still under the spell. Ariel helps him transform so that the nobles recognise him as ‘the Duke of Milan’ when they are back to normal. Prospero then sends Ariel to the ship to fetch the Master and Boatswain.

Prospero breaks the spell on the nobles and they recognise him. Alonso asks Prospero to ‘pardon me my wrongs’. Prospero forgives his brother Antonio, then reveals Miranda and Ferdinand. Alonso is delighted to see his son alive and happy, saying ‘Now all the blessings / Of a glad father compass thee about’.

The Master and the Boatswain appear with the news that the ship is as undamaged as ‘when we first put out to sea’. Prospero sends Ariel to release Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo, and Prospero invites the nobles to rest in his cell so that they can all sail home to Naples the next morning.