Don Quixote, a kind gentleman farmer, spends much of his time reading about knights. One day, he decides to become a knight and sets out to seek some knightly adventures. He prepares for his travels by procuring old armor, rusty weaponry, and a gaunt horse and designating Adonza Lorenzo (who he decides to call Dulcinea del Toboso) as his fair lady.
Don Quixote and Rozinante set out to find an adventure and arrive at an inn. Don Quixote believes the inn is a castle and the innkeeper is its governor. Humoring Don Quixote, the innkeeper agrees to beknight Don Quixote. Don Quixote wishes to watch over his armor in a chapel overnight, as is custom for those becoming knights, but the inn has no chapel. Instead, Don Quixote places his armor in a trough and attacks a mule driver and a wagoner who get too close to the armor. Worried that someone will get hurt, the innkeeper convinces Don Quixote to hold his beknighting ceremony early and dubs Don Quixote a knight.
Don Quixote and Rozinante leave the inn and encounter a stout farmer whipping a servant boy. Don Quixote wrests a promise from the farmer that he will stop whipping the boy and pay the boy his earned wages. However, Don Quixote rides off before ensuring the farmer keeps his word. Unfortunately, the farmer is not a chivalrous man and resumes beating the boy as soon as Don Quixote is out of earshot. Don Quixote continues blissfully on, convinced he's a hero.
Don Quixote and Rozinante set off from the inn and encounter a group of merchants, servants, and mule drivers. Don Quixote blocks the road and refuses to allow the merchants to pass until they declare Dulcinea del Toboso the most beautiful lady in the universe. When the merchants refuse, Don Quixote tries to attack but both he and his horse fall. Don Quixote is beaten by one of the mule drivers but rescued by a plowman from his village. The plowman returns Don Quixote to his home, where his family, servants, and neighbors plot to return Don Quixote to sanity by burning all his books.
Don Quixote's servants and neighbors burn all his books in the hopes of returning him to sanity. The curate and the barber work to conceal the entrance to the library. When Don Quixote searches for his library and cannot find it, the housekeeper tells Don Quixote that an enchanter riding a dragon has stolen the library and the books within it. Don Quixote vows revenge against Freston, the enchanter he blames for stealing his library.
While he recovers, Don Quixote remains fixated on knights, despite all of his books being burned. Anxious for more adventures, Don Quixote hires Sancho Panza to be his squire.
Despite Sancho's attempts to correct him, Don Quixote mistakes windmills for giants and attacks one. The windmill destroys his lance, and he and Rozinante fall to the ground. Don Quixote rationalizes his defeat by claiming that the enchanter, Freston, has changed the giants into windmills. The loyal Sancho agrees with Don Quixote's version of events.
Don Quixote encounters a lady in a coach and her entourage. He attacks, believing the robed and masked monks at the front of the entourage to be magicians imprisoning the lady. The monks flee, poor Sancho is beaten badly by mule drivers, and Don Quixote battles the lady's Biscayan squire. The chapter ends with a cliffhanger. Who will triumph - Don Quixote or the Biscayan?
The Biscayan strikes, damaging Don Quixote's helmet and slicing off part of Don Quixote's ear. Despite his injuries, Don Quixote triumphs when the Biscayan's mule spooks and throws the Biscayan to the ground. Don Quixote demands the Biscayan travel to Toboso and turn himself over to the Lady Dulcinea, and the Biscayan agrees. After the Biscayan departs, Don Quixote realizes his helmet is lost and vows revenge on the Biscayan. When Sancho points out the Biscayan is already traveling to Toboso to turn himself over to Dulcinea, Don Quixote vows never to eat on a tablecloth until he obtains a new helmet.
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza encounter two clouds of dust on the road. Don Quixote becomes excited, believing the clouds are two armies marching toward each other to do battle. Don Quixote ignores Sancho's warnings that the clouds are actually flocks of sheep and rushes in to do battle against the sheep. The shepherds throw rocks to defend their flocks, injuring Don Quixote and knocking him off Rozinante. Don Quixote later claims that the armies were transformed into sheep by his enchanter archenemy, Freston.
Don Quixote and Sancho meet a barber riding a donkey and wearing a brass basin on his head. Don Quixote believes the barber is a knight and the bass basin Mambrino's golden helmet. Don Quixote and Rozinante charge the barber. The barber flees in terror and the brass basin falls from his head. Don Quixote wears the basin as a helmet, claiming enchanters changed its form to a basin. Sancho shares in the spoils, taking the barber's saddle for his own donkey.
Don Quixote and Sancho come across a group of shackled prisoners and their guards. Don Quixote decides to free the prisoners, viewing them as oppressed since they are chained and bound for the king's galleys. Don Quixote attacks the guards and inspires the prisoners to break their chains. Sancho helps the prisoners free themselves, and the guards flee. Don Quixote demands that as repayment for their freedom, the prisoners must go to Toboso and present themselves to the Lady Dulcinea. The prisoners refuse and beat and rob Don Quixote and Sancho.
The wiliest of the prisoners, Gines de Passamonte, comes across Don Quixote and Sancho sleeping on their steeds. Gines decides to steal Dapple but tells himself he wishes to be kind and not wake Sancho. Gines cuts four saplings, unbuckles Dapple's saddle girths, and uses the sapling poles to elevate the saddle. Gines then walks the donkey out from under Sancho. Upon awakening, Don Quixote believes enchanters have transformed Dapple into the four sapling poles. Seeing donkey tracks leading away, Sancho suspects the truth. Sancho cries at his loss, and Don Quixote consoles Sancho by promising to give him three donkeys.
Don Quixote tasks Sancho to ride Rozinante to Toboso to carry a letter to the Lady Dulcinea. He also writes a letter directing his niece to give Sancho three donkeys. Sancho leaves a trail of boughs to the woods, so he can find his way back to Don Quixote. While Sancho is gone, Don Quixote plans to run through the woods and act like Orlando, the poetic knight driven mad by his unrequited love of a princess.
On his way back home to deliver the letter to Dulcinea, Sancho encounters the curate and the barber from Don Quixote's village at an inn. The curate and barber are searching for Don Quixote. After telling the curate and barber of his adventures, Sancho becomes distraught when he realizes he has lost the notebook containing Dulcinea's letter and Don Quixote's note to his niece regarding the three donkeys for Sancho. They fetch Don Quixote from the woods, tricking him into leaving with a story of a distraught lady. On the way back home, Sancho reclaims Dapple from Gines de Passamonte.
Don Quixote becomes ill and can no longer ride. The curate and barber enlist others to dress as masked enchanters, fake a kidnapping, and place Don Quixote in a wooden cage. They place the cage in an ox cart and carry Don Quixote home. Feeling guilty, Sancho reveals the curate and barber's plot and frees Don Quixote. Don Quixote tries to ride Rozinante but is too feeble. He must continue to ride in the cart. When they arrive home, the villagers crowd around Don Quixote. Sancho's wife, Juana, is happy to see Sancho. Don Quixote's housekeeper and niece put him to bed to convalesce.
Don Quixote recovers at home but does not lose his passion for his knightly adventures. Don Quixote's niece enlists scholar Samson Carrasco to dissuade Don Quixote from his adventures, but Samson instead encourages Don Quixote to continue his quests. Sancho asks Don Quixote for wages, but Don Quixote refuses, saying it is not in customs of chivalry. Sancho backs down and agrees to continue acting as Don Quixote's unpaid squire. Don Quixote and Sancho agree to continue their adventures. Don Quixote's housekeeper and niece cry, tear their hair, scratch their faces, plead, and scold when they learn Don Quixote will venture out with Sancho once more.
Don Quixote and Sancho travel to Toboso, and Sancho offers to locate the Lady Dulcinea. Doubting he'll be able to find Lady Dulcinea, Sancho pretends three girls riding donkeys are the Lady Dulcinea and her two maids. When Sancho tries to stop the three girls, they yell and gallop away from him. Don Quixote and Sancho blame the unpleasant encounter on enchanters.
Don Quixote and Sancho encounter a group of traveling performers dressed in their costumes. The clown shakes a stick with bladders at poor Rozinante, who streaks off across the field carrying Don Quixote. Sancho jumps off Dapple and races to help Don Quixote, and the clown hops on Dapple. Dapple throws the clown off and trots back to Sancho. Don Quixote wants to get revenge on the performers, but Sancho reminds him he must only do battle with true knights. Don Quixote agrees and tells Sancho to attack in his stead. Sancho refuses, and the two adventurers continue their quest.
Don Quixote and Sancho encounter the Knight of the Mirrors and his large nosed squire. The Knight of the Mirrors claims he has defeated Don Quixote, but Don Quixote knows he has never jousted with the man. Don Quixote and the Knight of the Mirrors decide to fight. Don Quixote knocks the Knight of the Mirrors to the ground and hurries to his side. When Don Quixote removes the Knight's helmet, he discovers the Knight is Samson Carrasco of La Mancha. Don Quixote and Sancho also learn the false nosed squire is Don Quixote's friend and neighbor, Thomas Cecial. Samson and Thomas fail to convince Don Quixote to return home and ride to the next town for plasters and ointments. Don Quixote and Sancho continue, seeking their next adventure.
Don Quixote and Sancho encounter a wagon adorned with flying flags. Inside are two lions destined for the king. The keeper asks Don Quixote to go around the lions, but he refuses. Instead, he demands to battle the lions. When the keeper opens the male lion's cage, the lion refuses to leave the cage. The keeper hails Don Quixote victory and promises to tell the king of Don Quixote's bravery. Don Quixote pays the keeper and the wagoner gold to make up for their lost time.
Don Quixote and Sancho spot a bark and abandon their steeds to travel down the river. The come across a group of millers and their water mills and are in danger of being cut up by the water wheels. The millers push the boat clear of the wheels with long poles. Don Quixote mistakes the mills for castles, shakes his sword, and demands the millers free a prisoner from their supposed castle. To save Don Quixote and Sancho from being cut up by a water wheel, the millers capsize the bark with their poles, plunging Don Quixote and Sancho into the water. A water mill wheel cuts the bark into pieces, and its owner demands payment. Don Quixote has Sancho pay, and the two wet men must trudge back to their steeds.
While riding in a meadow, Don Quixote and Sancho encounter the Duke and Duchess. Both Don Quixote and Sancho suffer embarrassing falls when they try to dismount their horses. The Duke offers to allow Don Quixote and Sancho to stay with them at their castle, and Don Quixote gratefully accepts. Back at the castle, it is revealed that Don Quixote and Sancho have been invited to stay at the castle because the Duke and Duchess are bored and want someone to play tricks on.
A veiled woman arrives and asks Don Quixote to travel to a far-off kingdom, to be her champion, and to lift the spell plaguing her. Don Quixote leaps at the chance to be her champion. The woman tells him he must travel on a magic steed due to the great distance. The next day, four woodsmen arrive with a wooden horse with a peg in its forehead. The woodsmen say the peg can be turned to direct the horse. Blindfolded to supposedly keep them from falling off, Don Quixote and Sancho mount the horse. The duke, duchess, and others clap and proclaim Don Quixote and Sancho flying high above them, although it is a trick and they remain on the ground. One man waves a fiery pole at them to simulate the sun. A servant lights the wooden horse's tail and fireworks within explode, throwing Don Quixote and Sancho to the ground. Don Quixote finds a scroll nearby signed by Merlin and proclaiming the enchantment removed. Sancho tells ridiculous stories about the journey, making the duke, duchess, and others wonder whether Sancho is making fun of them.
The duke offers to give Sancho an island as a joke, pretending one of his cities is an island. At first, Sancho is overjoyed, but he soon finds the stress of governing an island not to his liking. Sancho fetches Dapple and returns to the service of Don Quixote.
Don Quixote and Sancho say farewell to the duke and duchess and head out to find more adventures. They stop at an inn, where the innkeeper claims he has everything for supper in abundance. Sancho asks the innkeeper for many types of food and becomes frustrated when nothing is available. Finally, the innkeeper reveals he only has a pair of cow heels, dressed with beans, onions, and bacon left for dinner. Don Quixote and Sancho eat the rough fare without complaint. The next day, they head to Barcelona, where they visit the city's wonders and see the sea for the first time.
Don Quixote encounters the Knight of the White Moon at the seashore. The Knight insists that Don Quixote confess that the Knight's lady is more beautiful than Dulcinea del Toboso. When Don Quixote refuses, the Knight challenges him to combat. Don Quixote loses badly, and the Knight makes him promise to return home and remain there for a year in exchange for sparing Don Quixote's life. At the end of the chapter, the Knight's identity is revealed as Don Quixote's friend and neighbor, Samson Carrasco.
Don Quixote and Sancho return home to La Mancha. Sancho is overjoyed to be home, but Don Quixote is distraught and falls ill. Near death, he proclaims himself Alonzo Quixana again, and gives up the name Don Quixote. He renounces his books of knights and magicians and draws up his will. Alonzo Quixana leaves a small sum of money to Sancho and the remainder to his niece before falling into a gentle, eternal sleep.
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