Act I

The Imperial Gardens

The Emperor and Empress are married. The ease and passion of their relationship, however, have disappeared: “The woman casts no shadow”—the marriage is childless. The Empress is under additional pressure because of the weight of expectations and an ultimatum from her father Keikobad.

The Empress’s Nurse, who has raised her since her mother’s death, points out a solution for her dilemma: the Empress must leave “this house, towering towards the stars”, and seek help with simple people.

Change of Scene

The Empress and the Nurse set out.

At the Dyer’s House

Barak the Dyer and his Wife get by on the bare minimum. The fact that Barak’s three brothers live with the couple in their house is an emotional and financial drain on both of them. The greatest conflict in their marriage, however, is another one: Barak’s greatest wish is to have a child. The Dyer’s Wife rejects this.

While Barak is out of the house, the Dyer’s Wife receives a visit from the Empress and her Nurse. The Nurse flatters the Dyer’s Wife, offering her money and other benefits—in exchange for helping the Empress to have a child.

However, neither the servants nor the handsome youth the Nurse conjures up for the Dyer’s Wife convince her. At this point, the Dyer’s Wife cannot make up her mind to sell her body. When Barak returns, however, she refuses to share the bed with him, telling him he should sleep elsewhere this night.

Act II

Various Locations

The Nurse continues her attempts to convince the Dyer’s Wife to agree to a deal with her and the Empress. Again, she makes the handsome youth appear. Barak’s return, however, once again prevents a decision.

Barak invites the children from the neighbourhood to make his wife see him as a good father, but this only provokes her anger even more.

At the same time, the Emperor wanders the night, lost. He doubts his marriage, the Empress and himself. An attempt to approach his wife ends in disaster. The “red falcon” of their shared passion seems lost for good.

The Nurse secretly gives Barak a sleeping potion, arranging another encounter between the Dyer’s Wife and the youth. When Barak awakes, the situation escalates: his longing for a shared family increasingly repulses the Dyer’s Wife. She conveys to her husband how incompatible her ideas of life are with his wishes.

The Empress encounters the desperate Barak. She understands the situation she has created, also for him.

It is too late, however, for compassion and self-recrimination. The Dyer’s Wife has decided to give in to the Nurse’s offerings: “To the water of life! To the threshold of death!”

As dusk falls, all those involved find themselves facing the consequences of their actions. Barak violently confronts his wife. The Empress despairs. The Nurse insists that her actions were right. Not even she, however, can control everything. A great catastrophe interrupts the dispute: “Higher powers are in play here!”

Act III

Subterranean Vaults

The Dyer and the Dyer’s Wife try to find each other again, but are talking at cross-purposes.

A Rocky Ledge

The Nurse is prepared to take desperate measures to enable the Empress to have a child: “I know the way! I’ll get you the shadow!”. The Empress, on the other hand, is beginning to question the Nurse’s advice and strategies. She emancipates herself from her adviser and leaves the Nurse behind, alone.

A Temple-Like Room

After breaking with the Nurse, the Empress now also challenges her father Keikobad’s authority. She refuses to comply with other people’s demands, making a self-determined decision: “Ich will nicht—I don’t want to!”

Her self-liberation enables the Empress to also release her husband from his inner petrification. The couple reunites.

A Golden Bridge

The Dyer’s Wife and the Dyer make a joint decision about their future.

Epilogue

“Father, you are not threatened; / behold, Mother, / the fearful threat vanishes / that confounded you!”