The play follows a mild, animal-loving man who removes a painful thorn from a lion’s paw after stumbling on the beast in a forest; his quarrelsome wife provides comic contrast. Later, political and religious authorities condemn him to the arena, where the same lion recognizes him and refuses to harm him. The action interweaves farce and moral debate to examine compassion, personal conscience versus public ritual, the absurdities of social hypocrisy, and the humane bond between people and animals.