Impoverished Sir John Falstaff, a visitor to the town of Windsor, sends letters to Mistresses Page and Ford in the hope of wooing them and tapping into their husbands fortunes. The women discover his intention and, enlisting Mistress Quickly as their messenger, set a trap. Tipped off to Falstaff's scheme by Nym and Pistol, Master Page trusts in his wife's fidelity but Master Ford responds with jealous anger. Disguised as Master Brook, he gains Falstaff's confidence and learns his plans. Meanwhile, young Anne Page has attracted the amorous attentions of Doctor Caius, Slender and Fenton. She wants to wed the latter but her mother favors Caius and her father Slender. Each suitor hires Mistress Quickly to advance his cause for matrimony. Caius challenges Hugh Evans, one of Slender's supporters, to a duel but the Host leads the antagonists astray until they are reconciled. Mistress Ford lures Falstaff to her home where, just as he is pressing his charms, Mistress Page bursts in with the news of Master Ford's approach. Frightened, the fat seducer hides and is indecorously disposed of. The women entice the gullible Falstaff to return again with similar result: Master Ford enters in a rage and the bumbling wooer escapes at the expense of his pride and comfort. The Mistresses finally inform their husbands of Falstaff's lechery and together they hatch a plot to teach him a lesson that collides with the Pages attempts to marry off Anne and her scheme to elope with Fenton.