Having taken a fancy to her secretary, Teodoro, spunky young beauty Countess Diana of Belflor is alarmed to learn of his engagement to one of her maids, Marcela. She intervenes to separate them by steering Marcela's affections to another court flunky, Fabio, and Teodoro's admiration in her own direction. While the extent of her designs on him wavers uncertainly, Diana's attentiveness to Teodoro nonetheless provokes jealousy from her noblemen suitors. They enlist the upstart's resourceful confidant Tristan to bump him off. But he instead hatches a plot to pass Teodoro off as the long-lost son of an ailing count Ludovico, thus elevating his friend to Diana's level.