Their king, Oberon, is in the midst of a heated quarrel with his queen, Titania. Nearby, a group of Athenian laborers is rehearsing a play, Pyramus and Thisbe. Oberon's mischievous servant, Puck, seizes this opportunity to play a practical joke on one of the more boisterous laborers, Bottom, and transforms his head into that of a donkey. When Titania wakes, it is Bottom she first espies, and she falls madly in love with him. As the lovers chase each other passionately through the woods, Oberon catches sight of them, and seeing how the lovelorn Helena is so remorselessly spurned by Demetrius, he takes pity on her and orders Puck to squeeze some of the juice in Demetrius' eyes while he sleeps.
Puck mistakenly administers the juice to Lysander instead.
Eventually the lovers collapse from exhaustion, and the charms which have been put upon Titania, Bottom and Lysander are removed. Theseus locates the sleeping lovers and sanctions the marriages of Lysander to Hermia and Demetrius to Helena. The three couples celebrate their weddings together, and as part of the evening's entertainment, the laborers give a memorable performance of Pyramus and Thisbe.