A story about a lower-class aristocrat named Alanso Quixano who, after reading too many novels about chivalry, loses his sanity and comes to believe that knights, maidens and dragons really exist.

Making a portly neighbor his squire, the man refashions himself a knight named Don Quixote and sets off on a quest for adventure. Innkeepers become lords, windmills become dragons and peasant girls become ladies-in-waiting to him as he and his servant find themselves in situations that are often comical, disastrous and violent.