Four women from Gubbio--Angelica, Violetta, Lisa and Bettina--are brought before the judge by their respective lovers and husbands as guilty: Angelica, a nun, guilty of impairing the physical conditions of her lover Righetto, which she made available to all their sisters; Violetta, wife of a man who neglected her, for having taken the place of a prostitute frequently visited by her husband and his friends; Lisa, a maid, for having extorted from her masters, in agreement with her lover and for his sake, 150 florins; and Bettina, for having deceived her jealous consort by pretending to be dead, later to become the lover of certain friars and become pregnant, to state her own resurrection with their agreement. The defender, appealing to their femininity, obtains the acquittal of the four accused from the judge--who will soon take advantage of it.