Prologue
Following the owner’s death, the contents of a luxurious apartment are being disposed of by auction. Between the auctioneer, busy valuing each object, and his assistants, sits Nanina the faithful servant taking leave of the familiar apartment for the last time. Curious visitors, buyers, acquaintances and friends of the deceased enter and examine the surroundings. Among them is an old man, Monsieur Duval. A young man rushes into the room, seemingly lost in thought. It is Armand Duval. Upon realising where he is and seeing the familiar objects around him, he appears to be on the point of collapsing. The old man lovingly supports him. Overcome by memories Armand begins to tell his story.

Act1
It began in the Théâtre des Variétés, during a performance of the ballet Manon Lescaut, the famous drama of a courtesan torn between love of luxury and love itself. Marguerite Gautier, one of the most beautiful and desirable courtesans in Paris, was in the audience. Moved by Manon’s plight she felt close to her, yet refused to accept Manon as her own reflection. Armand, who had admired Marguerite from afar, was introduced to her for the first time that night. Overwhelmed by this meeting, he followed the ballet in a state of extreme anxiety.

Recognising certain of his own traits in the character of Des Grieux, Manon’s faithful lover, he feared for an instant that his own future might reflect Des Grieux’s tragic fate. After the performance Marguerite decided to have fun, in spite of the presence of the boring young Count N., by inviting Gaston, Armand’s friend, and Prudence, a rather vulgar courtesan, to her apartment. Armand came with them. Marguerite used Armand to annoy the count. The situation grew acrimonious. Count N. left the apartment in a fit of jealousy. A coughing fit overcame Marguerite.

Armand followed her and offered his help and, overcome by emotion, confessed his love for her. Marguerite began by sceptically rejecting him yet, at the same time, was touched by his declaration. Subsequently, their relationship deepened. Hurrying from ball to ball, from admirer to admirer, from an ageing duke to a young count, Marguerite continued to lead the same life. But Armand was always waiting for her. He even followed her to the idyllic country house that the Duke, worried by her ill health, had put at her disposal.

Act 2
In the country, Marguerite continued her turbulent way of life at the Duke’s expense. Inevitably, a public confrontation took place between the Duke and Armand. For the first time Marguerite made a choice, openly defending her lover and rejecting a life of wealth and security. The Duke left indignantly. Their friends left too. Armand and Marguerite, alone at last, could savour their love without hindrance. Overcome by the thought that this happiness is long past, Armand collapses anew. His father, deeply affected, remembers the role that he played in the story. Upon learning of the life that his son was leading, he had visited Marguerite in her country house unbeknown to Armand, and demanded that she left Armand both for the latter’s own good and to protect his daughter’s irreproachable reputation.

Marguerite proved her deep and sincere love for Armand by relinquishing him. Profiting from Armand’s absence, she returned to Paris and threw herself headlong into her old life. Armand regains his calm. He tells his father how he found the house empty on his return. He waited for Marguerite in vain until, to his surprise, Nanina brought him a letter in which Marguerite wrote that she was leaving him to return to her former existence. Unbelieving, he hurried to Paris. After walking all night, he arrived at the apartment to find her in the arms of another man.  

Act 3
Some time later they met by chance on the Champs-Élysées. Marguerite was in the company of a beautiful courtesan, Olympia, to whom Armand immediately paid court, feeling the need to strike back at Marguerite out of his deep sense of hurt. Out of vengeance he began to keep Olympia. Deathly ill, Marguerite visited Armand one last time to beg him to stop humiliating her and to treat her more gently. Their passion burst into flame once more. But a nightmare vision of Manon tortured Marguerite when they fell asleep. On waking, she decided to honour her promise and silently left her beloved Armand for the second time. Later he publicly offended her at a grand ball by handing her an envelope full of money in “payment” for her services. Thereupon Marguerite collapsed.

Armand has now reached the end of his story to which his father, much moved, has listened. They part. Nanina, who has heard Armand arrive, brings him Marguerite’s private diary. Armand starts to read it and learns of the rapid disintegration of her health. He appears to accompany her on her last visit to the theatre to see Manon Lescaut. Manon, banished to America and impoverished, dies of exhaustion in the arms of her faithful lover Des Grieux, who has followed her into exile. Ill and despairing, Marguerite must leave the theatre, but the ballet’s characters pursue her and appear in her feverish dreams alongside her own hopes and memories. She longs to see Armand one last time. Abandoned by her former friends, she entrusts her anxieties and regrets to her diary. She leaves it with Nanina for Armand. Marguerite dies alone and in total poverty.