The Black Death devastates Florence, filling streets with corpses and causing the city's social order and institutions to collapse.

Seven young noblewomen meet at Santa Maria Novella cathedral and agree to escape the plague-ridden city by retreating to the countryside.

Three young men — Panfilo, Filostrato, and Dioneo — join the seven women, and the brigata travels together to a comfortable countryside villa.

Pampinea is crowned queen for the first day and establishes the storytelling structure, assigning each member one story per day under a chosen theme.

Panfilo tells the first story: the wicked Ciappelletto makes a lying deathbed confession and is venerated as a saint after his death.

Filomena becomes queen for the second day and selects misadventures with happy endings as the storytelling theme.

Andreuccio is tricked by a Neapolitan prostitute, survives a series of disasters, and escapes the city with a valuable archbishop's ring.

Boccaccio interrupts the narrative to defend his writing and tells a brief story about a sheltered boy who is instantly and helplessly drawn to women.

Filostrato is crowned king for the fourth day and selects stories of love ending in tragedy as the theme.

Tancredi has his daughter Ghismonda's secret lover Guiscardo killed and sends Guiscardo's heart in a golden cup; Ghismonda poisons herself and dies.

Fiammetta is crowned queen for the fifth day and calls for stories in which love ultimately overcomes hardship and misfortune.

Federigo kills his prized falcon to serve Monna Giovanna for dinner, not knowing she came to ask for the bird; she later chooses to marry him.

Elissa is crowned queen for the sixth day; a servant dispute delays the storytelling before the group resumes with tales of wit overcoming difficulty.

Madonna Filippa, caught in adultery, publicly argues the law unfairly targets only women; the court sides with her and the law is amended.

Panfilo is made king for the final day of storytelling; after the last tale is told, the brigata agrees to return to Florence the following morning.

This pool traces the full arc of The Decameron's framing narrative, from the Black Death devastating Florence to the brigata's bittersweet return home. Seven noblewomen and three young men flee the plague together, establishing a ten-day storytelling retreat at a countryside villa under rotating rulers. The first story sets the book's satirical tone toward the clergy, while the second day's queen introduces the theme of misadventures ending happily. Tragic love dominates the fourth day under Filostrato's reign, most powerfully in the story of Ghismonda and Guiscardo, while the fifth day's queen calls for love overcoming hardship. The sixth day sees a servant dispute delay proceedings before Madonna Filippa's bold courtroom defense changes a law entirely. The pool closes as the final king Panfilo presides over the tenth day and the brigata agrees to leave their refuge and return to Florence.

The brigata's escape from Florence and their most celebrated tales.

Abraham the Jew visits Rome, witnesses the clergy's outrageous corruption firsthand, and converts to Christianity because the faith has survived despite its leaders.

A young monk is caught with a woman in his cell; the abbot waits to confront him but sleeps with the woman himself, and both agree to share her visits.

The entertainer Bergamino shames the miserly lord Can Grande della Scala into paying him by telling a pointed story about a stingy abbot who refused a poet.

Masetto pretends to be deaf and mute to secure work as a convent gardener, secretly sleeps with every nun including the abbess, and eventually retires wealthy.

Alatiel, shipwrecked while sailing to her wedding, is kidnapped and passed between a succession of men who desire her beauty before finally marrying the intended king.

The exiled Walter of Antwerp flees false rape accusations, settles his children with foster families under new names, and is pardoned when his accuser confesses on her deathbed.

Bernabò's wife is framed for infidelity by Ambrogiuolo's trickery and ordered killed; she escapes, works at a sultan's court in disguise, exposes the fraud, and is reunited with her husband.

The aging judge Ricciardo's young wife Bartolomea falls in love with the pirate who kidnaps her, refuses to return to her husband, and Ricciardo goes home alone and dies.

Tedaldo degli Elisei returns to Florence in disguise after years away, discovers a man wrongly jailed for his presumed murder, frees him, and reveals his true identity at a banquet.

Nastagio degli Onesti witnesses the ghostly vision of a knight eternally chasing and killing a woman in the forest and uses the spectacle to frighten his beloved into marrying him.

The scholar Rinieri tricks the cruel widow Elena into standing naked atop a tower in the blazing sun for hours as punishment for mocking his love.

An abbess rushes to punish a nun for harboring a male lover but accidentally dresses in her own lover's breeches; the nun points this out and all charges are dropped.

The naïve merchant Salabaetto is swindled out of a large sum of money by the scheming Madonna Jancofiore in Sicily but returns and tricks her into repaying triple the amount.

Gisippus gives his betrothed Sophronia to his friend Titus; years later, penniless and wrongly accused of murder, Gisippus is saved when Titus publicly claims to be the true killer.

Gualtieri, Marquis of Saluzzo, spends more than a decade cruelly testing his humble wife Griselda's patience by taking away her children before finally reuniting the family and renewing their marriage.

This pool gathers significant stories from across all ten days of the brigata's retreat, focusing on tales of endurance, deception, and unexpected reversals. The first day offers sharp critiques of the clergy through Abraham's visit to Rome and the story of the monk whose abbot shares his sinful secret, while Day 2 presents sprawling adventures including Alatiel's harrowing passage between kidnappers and Beritola's years living in a cave nursing deer. Day 3 brings Masetto's cunning infiltration of a convent and Tedaldo's dramatic return from apparent death to free an innocent man. Days 5 and 8 offer Nastagio's use of a ghostly vision to win a cruel woman's hand and Elena's brutal punishment by the scholar she once humiliated. The pool closes at Day 10 with the extraordinary friendship of Titus and Gisippus and the prolonged, harrowing testing of the patient Griselda by her capricious husband Gualtieri.

Memorable tales of adventure, disguise, and resilience from the villa's ten days.

The wise Melchizedek answers Saladin's trap — which of the three faiths is true? — with a parable about three identical rings, earning Saladin's respect and a fair loan.

A Franciscan friar joins the Inquisition for profit and tries to extort a wealthy man for blasphemy; the man publicly embarrasses the friar with scripture and is never punished.

A noblewoman traveling through Cyprus shames the notoriously fearful King into decisive action by sarcastically asking how one learns to absorb insults without responding.

A merchant's nephew Alessandro shares a bed at an inn with an apparent abbot who reveals herself to be the disguised daughter of the King of England; they secretly marry.

The pirate-turned-prisoner Landolfo Rufolo survives a shipwreck by clinging to a chest full of gems, washes ashore on Corfu, and returns home wealthy enough to retire.

The abbot drugs Ferondo into a death-like sleep, convinces the awakened Ferondo he is in purgatory, conducts an affair with his wife, and returns Ferondo to life seemingly cured of jealousy.

Gilette disguises herself as another woman to trick her reluctant husband Bertrand into sleeping with her, obtains his ring, and becomes pregnant, forcing him to honor his own conditions.

Lisabetta's brothers secretly murder her lover Lorenzo; his ghost reveals where his body is buried, and she digs up his head to keep it hidden in a pot of basil.

Cimon, mocked across Cyprus as an imbecile, is transformed by his love for the beautiful Iphigenia into a refined and capable man who learns music, dress, and manners.

Pietro Boccamazza and Agnolella elope from Rome but are separated by bandits; they are reunited by chance at the same castle, whose noblewoman hosts their wedding.

Gianni and Restituta are condemned to burn at the stake by a king who found them together, but a royal admiral recognizes them as children of the king's own supporters and stays the execution.

Monna Ghita tricks her jealous husband Tofano by throwing a stone into the well at night; fearing she has drowned herself, he runs to check and she locks him out of the house.

Lydia kills her husband's hawk, cuts his beard, and pulls out his tooth to prove her love for Pyrrhus, then has sex with Pyrrhus in full view of her husband while convincing him the enchanted pear tree caused an illusion.

The King of Spain gives the complaining knight Ruggieri two sealed chests to choose from; Ruggieri picks the chest full of dirt, and the King awards him the chest of gems to defy fate.

Gentile de' Carisendi discovers the entombed Madonna Catalina is still alive, nurses her to health, delivers her baby, and then presents mother and child to her astonished husband at a banquet, renouncing any claim to her.

This pool focuses on pivotal moments of revelation, disguise, and transformation drawn from across all ten days of storytelling. Day 1 opens with Melchizedek's parable of three indistinguishable rings defusing Saladin's trap, and a widow shaming a cowardly king into action with a single pointed remark. Days 2 and 3 feature startling identity revelations — Alessandro discovers his fellow traveler is a disguised princess, Gilette tricks her reluctant husband into fulfilling his own impossible conditions, and the abbot Ferondo is convinced he has risen from purgatory. The fourth and fifth days bring the horror of Lisabetta's grief-driven devotion to a severed head and the remarkable transformation of the foolish Cimon into a capable man through the civilizing power of love. Days 7 and 10 close the pool with Lydia's breathtaking manipulation of her credulous husband and Gentile de' Carisendi's extraordinary act of generosity in returning the woman he loves to her rightful family.

Key moments of discovery, transformation, and moral reversal across the ten days.