The play dramatizes episodes from the life of a beloved poet, alternating rural tableaux, tavern gatherings, and household scenes that mix song, verse, and conversation. It follows his romantic entanglements and friendships, his clashes with a canting minister who condemns popular pleasures, and his energetic defenses of love, laughter, and common folk. Music and folk songs are threaded through the action, giving voice to communal celebration and personal longing, while recurring confrontations probe hypocrisy, moral judgment, and the tensions between artistic impulse and social expectation.