The city of Naples is in the grasp of the plague, and the terrified people are mowed down by the awful disease. The king with his court flees to a distant castle, where death is mockingly defied, behind locked doors. Death, a shadowy specter, carrying his scythe, stalks into the castle, presenting a weird and awe-inspiring sight, and casts the plague upon all except a poor woman and her two little children, whose pleadings moved the king to take them along, and who, alone, prayed to be spared.