The play opens in Rousillon, a Catalan province of Spain, where young Count Bertram bids farewell to his mother the Countess and Helena, as he leaves for the court of Paris at the French King's order. Bertram's father has recently died and Bertram is to be the King's ward and attendant. Helena, a young minor noblewoman and ward of the Countess, whose father has also recently died, laments her unrequited love for Bertram, and losing him to Paris, which weighs on her though it seems to others that she mourns her father.