The ballad begins by briefly describing the fall of Troy. Asserting that "Corn now grows where Troy-town stood" (line 6), the ballad then moves immediately into Aeneas's arrival at Carthage following his flight from Troy. Welcomed by Dido, Carthage's Queen, with a feast, Aeneas tells the tale of Troy's fall "With Words so sweet and Sighs so deep, / that oft he made them all to Weep" (lines 23–24). Following Aeneas's grand tale, all leave the feast and go to sleep, save for Dido who finds herself unable to sleep, kept awake by her desire for Aeneas. As dawn arrives, Dido is then distraught to learn that Aeneas and the Trojans have left Carthage. Dido's desire thus turns into despair; sobbing, she cries out for death to end the pain in her heart, and stabs herself in the chest. Following Dido's funeral, her sister Anna writes to Aeneas to tell him of his part in Dido's suicide. Upon reading the letter, Dido's ghost appears to Aeneas and she demands that he join her as a spirit; while Aeneas pleads with Dido that she not take him, his pleas are in vain. The ballad ends as a group of "ugly fiends" (line 134) come to take Aeneas's body away.