The play opens with a stage that represents the common room where prisoners—mostly “thieves and murderers” (5)—gather as they await trial. A ramp lowers and the officers of the Inquisition escort Cervantes and his servant into the prison with a chest containing their possessions. The prisoners attack Cervantes to rob him until their leader, the Governor, calls them off temporarily to allow Cervantes to introduce himself as a gentleman, a poet, a playwright, and an actor. When asked if being a poet is now a crime, Cervantes admits he also had a side job as a tax collector. The Inquisition has imprisoned him for attempting to foreclose on a church, which Cervantes did since he insists the law needs to apply equally to every person and institution.

The Governor informs Cervantes that every prisoner is tried by his fellow prisoners, found guilty, and fined all his possessions. After a brief resistance, Cervantes resigns himself to the loss of his props and costumes, but leaps to the defense of a bundle of papers that the Governor is about to burn. This bundle, the audience will later learn, is the manuscript for Don Quixote.