Alonso Quixano dons homemade armor, renames himself Don Quixote, names his old horse Rocinante, and declares himself a knight errant.

An innkeeper performs a knighting ceremony for Quixote after Quixote attacks two farmers who disturb his armor vigil beside a well.

Quixote persuades local peasant Sancho Panza to become his squire, promising him the future governorship of an island.

Quixote charges at a field of windmills with his lance, convinced they are giants, and breaks his lance in the process.

Quixote chases off a barber riding through rain and takes his brass washbasin, believing it is the legendary helmet of Mambrino.

Quixote frees a chained gang of prisoners condemned to row the king's galleys, and the freed convicts attack him with rocks.

Pero Perez and Master Nicholas trick Quixote into a wooden crate on a cart and haul him home, ending his first adventure.

Quixote convinces Panza to join a new adventure after Panza reports that a published book has made Quixote famous across Spain.

Panza points at a passing peasant girl and declares she is the enchanted Dulcinea; Quixote blames magicians for her plain appearance.

Quixote duels the disguised Knight of the Wood at dawn and wins, knocking the rival knight from his horse.

A duke and duchess who have read about Quixote welcome him and Panza to their castle and begin staging elaborate pranks.

The Duke sends Panza to govern a town, telling him it is the island governorship Quixote has long promised his squire.

Quixote is defeated in a duel by the Knight of the White Moon and agrees to return home for one full year.

The Knight of the White Moon is unmasked as Sanson Carrasco, the scholar who pursued Quixote across Spain to end his adventures.

Quixote falls ill with fever, renounces his belief in knighthood, dictates his last will and testament, and dies.

A bored Spanish nobleman transforms himself into the knight Don Quixote, recruits the peasant Sancho Panza as his squire, and sets out to spread chivalry across Spain. His delusional adventures lead to famous incidents like charging windmills and stealing a barber's basin before his friends drag him home in a wooden crate at the end of his first adventure. Inspired by a published book about his exploits, Quixote convinces Panza to set out again, and the squire deepens their partnership by inventing an enchantment on Dulcinea that will drive the plot forward. A disguised Sanson Carrasco tries to defeat Quixote in a duel and force him home but fails, while a duke and duchess later trap both men in an elaborate web of pranks and send Panza to govern a fake island. Quixote's second adventure ends when Carrasco finally defeats him on a Barcelona beach, forcing him to abandon his knightly identity under the terms of the duel. Returning home broken and stripped of purpose, Quixote falls ill and dies peacefully, having renounced knighthood but secured his fame as Spain's most beloved knight.

The main quest: Don Quixote's rise and fall as a self-made knight.

Quixote rides out alone on his first adventure and arrives at an inn that he mistakes for a magnificent castle.

Quixote finds a farmer whipping a shepherd boy and intervenes, but the farmer whips the boy even harder once Quixote rides away.

Pero Perez and Master Nicholas sort through Quixote's library and burn the books they believe have driven him to madness.

Quixote and Panza share a meal with goatherds and hear the story of Grisostomo, a young man who died of heartbreak.

At Grisostomo's funeral, Marcela defends her right to refuse all suitors, and Quixote draws his sword to protect her retreat into the forest.

Quixote attacks a nighttime funeral procession with his lance, convinced the mourners are transporting an injured knight.

Fernando, Luscinda, Cardenio, and Dorotea are all reunited at an inn, with estranged lovers restored to one another.

The inn's guests take a vote and unanimously declare that Quixote's stolen brass washbasin is genuinely Mambrino's enchanted helmet.

Panza and the Squire of the Wood share wine and bond over their masters' delusions and the empty promises made to them.

Quixote demands that a royal cart release its caged lions so he can fight them; the lions emerge and then ignore him.

Panza tries to calm a village feud by braying like a donkey in solidarity, and the furious villagers beat him to the ground.

Panza surprises the Duke's servants and townspeople by ruling with unexpected fairness and wisdom as governor of his supposed island.

Panza voluntarily resigns his governorship after being trampled in a staged battle, declaring he was not born to be a ruler.

Bandit leader Roque Guinart recognizes the famous Quixote and orders his men to return everything they stole from the knight and his squire.

Quixote and Panza arrive back in their home village and are welcomed by Quixote's niece, housekeeper, and waiting friends.

This pool follows the secondary events of Don Quixote's journey, beginning with his very first solo adventure and his failure to protect a shepherd boy from further abuse. Back at home, his friends burn his library and seal the door to prevent a relapse, but Quixote still sets out again, encountering shepherds mourning a young man who died of heartbreak and attending his funeral where Marcela defends her freedom. The men later stumble into a nighttime funeral procession Quixote mistakes for an enemy convoy, and at a crowded inn, separated lovers are dramatically reunited while guests entertainingly vote to declare Quixote's stolen washbasin an enchanted helmet. In the second part of the story, Panza bonds with another long-suffering squire, Quixote faces down royal lions with bizarre bravado, and Panza's surprisingly wise governorship ends with his voluntary resignation after a staged mock battle. The adventure closes when the charming bandit Roque Guinart escorts the pair toward Barcelona, and the two companions eventually make their quiet return to their home village.

The supporting cast and secondary adventures that fill out Quixote's world.

Quixote charges merchants demanding they acknowledge Dulcinea's beauty; Rocinante stumbles and throws Quixote bruised and helpless to the road.

Quixote mixes a healing potion from memory and persuades Panza to drink it too, causing both men to vomit violently.

Quixote and Panza discover an abandoned saddlebag hidden in the Sierra Morena mountains containing gold coins and a notebook of love poetry.

Dorotea agrees to pose as the fictional Princess Micomicona and falls to her knees begging Quixote to slay a giant threatening her kingdom.

The shepherd boy Andres reappears to tell Quixote that the farmer beat him worse than ever after Quixote's earlier intervention.

Quixote sleepwalks at an inn and hacks wine skins apart with his sword, convinced he is slaying the giant from his quest.

Christian soldier Ruy Perez arrives at an inn with Zoraida and recounts how they escaped from Algerian captivity with her help.

Carrasco confesses to Pero Perez that he lost his duel against Quixote while disguised as the Knight of the Wood and now vows revenge.

Basilio interrupts Camacho's lavish wedding by apparently stabbing himself and, with his last breath, asks Quiteria to marry him instead.

Quixote is lowered into the Cave of Montesinos on a rope, falls asleep, and awakens claiming he witnessed wondrous enchanted visions inside.

Quixote becomes so engrossed in Master Pedro's puppet show that he draws his sword and destroys the wooden stage to rescue the puppets.

The Duke stages a spectacle featuring a fake Merlin who declares that Panza must whip himself three thousand times to free Dulcinea.

Panza and his donkey fall into a roadside pit while traveling back from the governorship, and Quixote helps pull them both free.

Quixote visits a printing house in Barcelona producing the counterfeit second volume of his adventures and debates literature with its workers.

Quixote and Panza meet Don Alvaro Tarfe, a figure from the counterfeit book, who signs a legal declaration confirming Quixote is the authentic knight.

This pool tracks the pivotal moments in Don Quixote that shift the direction of the story and reveal the true nature of its characters, beginning with Quixote's first humiliating fall and a disastrous healing potion that leaves both men violently ill. A hidden bag of gold and poetry in the mountains marks a turn toward deeper conspiracies, while Dorotea's performance as a fictional princess shows how others learn to weaponize Quixote's delusions, and the return of the shepherd boy Andres reveals the real harm Quixote's rescues can cause. A sleepwalking attack on wine skins and a soldier's tale of Moorish captivity each expose the gap between Quixote's heroic fantasies and a more complicated reality, before Carrasco's failed disguise as the Knight of the Wood leads to a bitter vow of revenge. In Part 2, Quixote claims vivid visions from a cave he never fully explored, destroys a puppet show to save fictional characters, and is subjected to a grand theatrical spectacle that turns Panza's own lies against him. The pool closes with a quiet but pointed moment of authentication, as a character drawn from the counterfeit book signs a legal declaration confirming that the man standing before him is the one true Don Quixote.

The key revelations and turning points that define Quixote's transformation and downfall.