Franklin tells Arden he has received the deed to Faversham Abbey, and Arden confides his distress over Alice's affair with Mosby.

Alice and Mosby agree to murder Arden to be together and accept poison from Clarke to put in Arden's broth.

Alice serves Arden poisoned broth but he tastes something wrong and refuses to finish it.

Alice convinces Greene that Arden wrongfully took the abbey lands from him, and Greene agrees to arrange the murder.

Greene hires Black Will and Shakebag, two notorious criminals, to kill Arden for payment.

A closing shop stall window strikes Black Will, sparking a brawl that allows Arden and Franklin to escape unharmed.

Michael wakes Arden with a false dream about thieves rather than leave the door unlocked for the waiting killers.

Lord Cheyne arrives on the road and inadvertently interrupts Will and Shakebag's planned ambush of Arden.

Dense mist causes Will and Shakebag to lose their way entirely, and Arden reaches the Isle of Sheppey safely.

Dick Reede confronts Arden over the abbey lands and curses him to die violently on that same ground.

Alice and Mosby walk arm-in-arm to enrage Arden, a sword fight erupts but the attack fails and men are wounded.

All conspirators gather in Arden's house, Mosby gives the signal, and the group stabs Arden to death.

Franklin discovers Arden's body in a field and brings the bloody murder weapons back to the house as evidence.

The Mayor sentences Alice, Mosby, Michael, Susan, and Bradshaw to death for their roles in the murder.

Franklin reveals to the audience that Arden was killed on the very land he took by force from Reede.

The play opens as Thomas Arden receives ownership of Faversham Abbey and confides in his friend Franklin about his wife Alice's affair with the social climber Mosby. Alice and Mosby decide to murder Arden, recruiting the painter Clarke for poison and the aggrieved Greene to hire professional killers, Black Will and Shakebag. Six attempts on Arden's life fail through mishap and interference, including a brawl at a shop stall, a servant's false alarm, and an aristocrat's chance arrival on the road. The former tenant Dick Reede curses Arden to die on the abbey land, and when Alice and Mosby provoke a public sword fight to create an opening, the conspirators still fail to land the killing blow. Finally, with all parties gathered in Arden's home, Mosby gives a secret signal and the group stabs Arden to death. Franklin discovers the body and incriminating evidence, the conspirators are arrested, and the Mayor passes death sentences before Franklin delivers a final moral about greed and injustice.

The headline events of a conspiracy to murder Thomas Arden.

Arden confronts Mosby about the affair, confiscates his sword, and mocks his past trade as a tailor.

Mosby tests Alice's devotion by pretending to have lost his affection for her before revealing it was a deliberate trick.

Clarke claims he can make a painting that kills its viewer but instead supplies Alice with poison for Arden's broth.

Alice promises Michael he can marry Mosby's sister Susan if he helps arrange Arden's murder.

Bradshaw warns Greene that Black Will is a dangerous criminal willing to kill anyone for a small sum of money.

Arden overhears Michael composing a love letter to Susan and vows to dismiss Susan from service upon his return.

After the failed stall attack, Will swears not to wash the blood from his face until Arden's heart is in his hands.

Arden recounts a vivid dream in which he is hunted like a deer, but Franklin dismisses it as meaningless.

Will and Shakebag quarrel and nearly come to blows while waiting to ambush Arden on the road to Lord Cheyne's.

Alice commissions Clarke's deadly poisoned painting as a desperate backup plan after so many failed murder attempts.

Michael claims to have lost his purse and stays behind rather than witness another attempt on Arden's life.

Alice and Susan scrub the floor after the murder but Arden's blood refuses to come out and keeps spreading.

Alice weeps repeatedly and openly during the dinner party, drawing Franklin's growing suspicion that something is wrong.

The Mayor points out Arden's indelible bloodstains on the floor of the house as evidence of the murder.

Shakebag murders his former lover after she refuses him shelter, while Will flees toward the Netherlands.

Beneath the headline events of the murder plot lies a web of smaller intrigues and character moments that reveal the play's deeper concerns about class, loyalty, and self-interest. Arden humiliates Mosby over his low birth and confiscates his sword, Mosby tests Alice's devotion with a calculated coldness, and Clarke negotiates his own price for providing poison rather than the more dangerous painted murder. Michael, torn between loyalty and desire, writes love letters to Susan while Arden threatens to dismiss her, and the hired killer Black Will swears a bloody oath after being wounded in the first bungled attempt. Arden experiences a prophetic dream about being hunted that Franklin wrongly dismisses, while the assassins bicker and nearly come to blows between assignments. As the conspirators grow desperate after repeated failures, Alice commissions a backup poisoned painting and Michael makes excuses to absent himself from each murder scene. After Arden is finally killed, supernatural blood refuses to be scrubbed away and Alice's visible grief draws Franklin's suspicion, before the Mayor finds damning physical evidence and the surviving conspirators scatter to their fates.

The scheming, suspicions, and overlooked moments behind the conspiracy.

Once Arden departs for London, Alice reveals to the audience her genuine desire to be with Mosby.

Mosby promises Clarke that Susan will be his wife in exchange for Clarke supplying a deadly poisoned painting.

Alice gives Greene ten pounds with a promise of twenty more to fund the hiring of professional killers.

Greene, Will, and Shakebag pressure Michael into joining the conspiracy and demand he leave the house door unlocked.

Michael soliloquizes his torn loyalties and concludes that fear of Will and Shakebag will prevent him from warning Arden.

Mosby soliloquizes that his newly accumulated wealth has made him fear losing everything, and he secretly resolves to kill all co-conspirators.

Alice begs Mosby to abandon the entire murder plan so she can return to being a faithful wife to Arden.

Mosby and Alice reconcile after their quarrel when Bradshaw delivers Greene's letter reporting that Arden is still alive.

Alice proposes parading her affair openly in front of Arden to provoke him into a rage and lower his guard.

Alice convinces Arden he overreacted to finding her with Mosby, and persuades him to go apologize; Franklin suspects the truth but stays silent.

Mosby reveals the final murder plan to Will and Shakebag, establishing a secret code phrase as the signal to attack.

Alice places Mosby in Arden's chair at the dinner table, a brazen act that catches Franklin's alarmed attention.

Alice is immediately overcome with guilt after Arden's murder and cannot stop weeping in front of the dinner guests.

Alice is brought to Arden's body, which bleeds freshly in her presence, and she confesses to the murder.

Franklin reveals that Clarke alone fled and escaped justice while every other conspirator met a violent end.

The deepest layer of the play consists of private turning points that set the tragedy in motion and determine its outcome. Alice conceals her true feelings from Arden but confesses them openly to the audience, while Mosby quietly trades Susan's hand in marriage to Clarke for a deadly painting and funds Greene's hired killers. Michael is drawn into the conspiracy against his conscience, and Mosby's soliloquy exposes his paranoid plan to eventually eliminate everyone who knows his secret, including Alice herself. A pivotal confrontation shows Alice losing her nerve and begging Mosby to abandon the entire plan, only for them to reconcile and recommit. After the murder is finally carried out, Alice is consumed by immediate guilt and weeps openly through the dinner party, and when Arden's body bleeds anew at her approach she confesses everything, sealing her fate and that of all her co-conspirators.

The private decisions, revelations, and emotional shifts that drive the tragedy.