 Giorgetta is on the deck of a barge doing domestic chores, while her husband Michele, the barge-owner, stands silently gazing at the sunset. Giorgetta offers a glass of wine all round; stevedores Luigi (tenor), Tinca (tenor) and Talpa (bass) gladly accept. Giorgetta dances with the stevedores until she realizes that Michele s behavior seems odd. La Frugola (mezzo-soprano) comes in looking for her husband, Talpa. When the men return, having finished their work, Tinca goes off to a tavern to get drunk, unhappy about his unfaithful wife. Luigi sings about the hardships of a stevedore s life, and La Frugola dreams of living in a cottage in the country. Giorgetta, on the other hand, longs for Paris, where she was born. When Luigi and Giorgetta are alone together, he tells her he is in love with her, and he would stab her to the heart than have her be with another man. They agree to meet that night and she will signal him with a lighted match when it is safe to come to the barge. Giorgetta sings sadly about the difficulty of finding true happiness. Michele returns and tries to reawaken his wife s love. He remembers their child, now dead, and how when the nights were cold he used to enfold them in his cloak (tabarro). When Michele asks why she now seems never to sleep at night, Giorgetta replies that the air of the cabin is too stuffy; she must go on deck to breathe. Once more Michele begs her to remain with him, but she avoids his hug and exits. Michele wonders who the adulterer can be. Talpa is too old; Tinca is always drunk. Michele takes out his pipe and begins to light it. Seeing the flame, Luigi comes aboard. Michele attacks him, forcing him to admit that he is Giorgetta s would-be boyfriend, then strangles him and wraps the body in his cloak. Giorgetta returns having had second thoughts and sorry for hurting her husband. Thinking of old times, she begs him to wrap his cloak around her. Then she discovers what Michele has done.