A duke's secret experiment in disguise exposes the hypocrisy of the deputy he leaves to enforce Vienna's strictest laws.
The Duke of Vienna, who has let the city's laws against vice go unenforced for years, hands his power to the strict Angelo and pretends to leave, staying on in disguise as a friar to watch. Angelo revives a law that punishes lovemaking outside marriage with death and condemns young Claudio, whose betrothed, Juliet, is carrying his child.
Claudio's sister Isabella, about to become a nun, pleads with Angelo for his life, and the deputy, inflamed by her purity, offers to spare Claudio if she sleeps with him. She refuses, and Claudio, terrified of death, begs her to give in. The disguised Duke proposes a trick: Mariana, whom Angelo once jilted, will keep the appointment in Isabella's place.
Angelo breaks his word and orders Claudio's execution anyway, but the Duke and the Provost save him by sending Angelo another prisoner's head, while Isabella is told her brother is dead. Returning as himself, the Duke hears Isabella's and Mariana's charges, is unmasked as the friar, and condemns Angelo to marry Mariana and then die. When both women kneel for Angelo's life, the Duke produces Claudio alive, pardons Angelo, and asks Isabella to marry him.
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