Chapters 1–8: Flight from the village

A view of Lake Como, chapter 1, engraving by Francesco Gonin (1808–1889)

The setting is beautiful but marred with poverty. It begins with Renzo and Lucia, a couple living in a village in Lombardy, near Lecco, on Lake Como, who are planning to wed on 8 November 1628. The parish priest, don Abbondio, is walking home on the eve of the wedding when he is accosted by two "bravi" (thugs) who warn him not to perform the marriage, because the local baron (Don Rodrigo) has forbidden it.

When he presents himself for the wedding ceremony, Renzo is amazed to hear that the marriage is to be postponed (the priest didn't have the courage to tell the truth). An argument ensues and Renzo succeeds in extracting from the priest the name of Don Rodrigo. It turns out that Don Rodrigo has his eye on Lucia and that he had a bet about her with his cousin Count Attilio.

Lucia's mother, Agnese, advises Renzo to ask the advice of "Dr. Azzeccagarbugli" (Dr. Quibbleweaver, in Colquhoun's translation), a lawyer in the town of Lecco. Dr. Azzeccagarbugli is at first sympathetic: thinking Renzo is actually the perpetrator, he shows Renzo a recent edict criminalising the making of threats to procure or prevent marriages, but when he hears the name of Don Rodrigo, he panics and drives Renzo away. Lucia sends a message to "Fra Cristoforo" (Friar Christopher), a respected Capuchin friar at the monastery of Pescarenico, asking him to come as soon as he can.

Fra Christopher's back story is told. He used to be the son of a rich merchant and his birth name was Lodovico. He had a steward named Christopher, who was very faithful and had a family. While traveling along a road, Lodovico and his enemy had a standoff over who would lose face and pass on the outside. A fight broke out and an enemy bravo killed Christopher. Lodovico then killed Christopher's murderer. Lodovico then decided to become a friar after wrapping up his worldly affairs with Christopher's family and the family of the man he had killed. Lodovico became a friar, taking the name Fra Christopher.

Fra Cristoforo and Don Rodrigo

When Fra Cristoforo comes to Lucia's cottage and hears the story, he immediately goes to Don Rodrigo's mansion, where he finds the baron at a meal with his cousin Count Attilio, along with four guests, including the mayor and Dr. Azzeccagarbugli. The power dynamics of the people at the dining table is evident. When Don Rodrigo is taken aside by the friar, he explodes with anger at his presumption and sends him away, but not before an old servant has a chance to offer his help to Cristoforo.

Meanwhile, Agnese has come up with a plan. In those days, it was possible for two people to marry by declaring themselves married before a priest and in the presence of two amenable witnesses. Renzo runs to his friend Tonio and offers him 25 lire if he agrees to help. When Fra Cristoforo returns with the bad news, Lucia and Renzo argue about how to proceed. Lucia is a god-fearing woman and doesn't want to get married by law. Renzo doesn't care and wants to get married no matter what and acts harshly to Lucia. Eventually, they decide to put their plan into action.

The next morning, Lucia and Agnese are visited by beggars, Don Rodrigo's men in disguise. They examine the house in order to plan an assault. Late at night, Agnese distracts Don Abbondio's servant Perpetua while Tonio and his brother Gervaso enter Don Abbondio's study, ostensibly to pay a debt. They are followed indoors secretly by Lucia and Renzo. When they try to carry out their plan, the priest throws the tablecloth in Lucia's face and drops the lamp. They struggle in the darkness. The plan fails and the five flee.

In the meantime, Don Rodrigo's men invade Lucia's house, but nobody is there. A boy named Menico, friend of Lucia and Renzo, arrives with a message of warning from Fra Cristoforo and they seize him. When they hear the alarm being raised by the sacristan, who is calling for help on the part of Don Abbondio who raised the alarm of invaders in his home, they assume they have been betrayed and flee in confusion. Menico sees Agnese, Lucia and Renzo in the street and warns them not to return home. They go to the monastery, where Fra Cristoforo gives Renzo a letter of introduction to a certain friar at Milan, and another letter to the two women, to organize a refuge at a convent in the nearby city of Monza.

Chapters 9–10: The Nun of Monza

The Nun of Monza

They lament leaving Lecco. Renzo, Lucia, and Agnese part ways. Lucia is entrusted to the nun Gertrude, a strange and unpredictable noblewoman whose story is told in these chapters.

A child of the most important family of the area, her father decided to send her to the cloisters for no other reason than to simplify his affairs: he wished to keep his properties united for his first-born, heir to the family's title and riches. Growing up to be a nun she thought she was more superior than others. As she grew up, she sensed that she was being forced by her parents into a life which would comport but little with her personality. She was kept in a convent for most of her life and dreamed to escape.

To become a nun, Gertrude must go back to the outside world and reflect if she wants to leave it forever. She is excited until she finds that her own family locks her up inside and ignores her. She finds solace in an affair with a servant boy. When her father finds out, he is furious and threatens and manipulates her into agreeing to become a nun permanently.

The fear of scandal, as well as manoeuvre, menaces, and manipulation from her father, induced Gertrude to lie to her interviewers in order to enter the convent of Monza, where she was received as la Signora. This forms Gertrude's personality and mental state badly as her hate of being a nun seeps into her actions. ("the lady", also known as The Nun of Monza). Later, she fell under the spell of a young man of no scruples, Egidio, associated with the worst baron of that time, the Innominato (the "Unnamed"). Egidio and Gertrude became lovers. When another nun discovered their relationship they killed her and buried her near the garden wall.

Chapters 11–17: Renzo in Milan

The Grand Chancellor Ferrer from chapter 13

Renzo arrives in famine-stricken Milan and goes to the monastery, but the friar he is seeking is absent and so he wanders further into the city. A bakery in the Corsia de' Servi, El prestin di scansc ("Bakery of the Crutches"), is destroyed by a mob, who then go to the house of the Commissioner of Supply in order to lynch him. He is saved in the nick of time by Ferrer, the Grand Chancellor, who arrives in a coach and announces he is taking the Commissioner to prison. Renzo becomes prominent as he helps Ferrer make his way through the crowd.

After witnessing these scenes, Renzo joins in a lively discussion and reveals views which attract the notice of a police agent in search of a scapegoat. The agent tries to lead Renzo directly to "the best inn" (i.e. prison) but Renzo is tired and stops at one nearby where, after being plied with drink, he reveals his full name and address. The next morning, he is awakened by a notary and two bailiffs, who handcuff him and start to take him away. In the street Renzo announces loudly that he is being punished for his heroism the day before and, with the aid of sympathetic onlookers and political unrest brewing, he escapes. Leaving the city by the same gate through which he entered, he sets off for Bergamo, knowing that his cousin Bortolo lives in a village nearby. Once there, he will be beyond the reach of the authorities of Milan (under Spanish domination), as Bergamo is territory of the Most Serene Republic of Venice.

At an inn in Gorgonzola, he overhears a conversation which makes it clear to him how much trouble he is in and so he walks all night until he reaches the River Adda. After a short sleep in a hut, he crosses the river at dawn in the boat of a fisherman and makes his way to his cousin's house, where he is welcomed as a silk-weaver under the pseudonym of Antonio Rivolta after he confesses everything to Bortolo. The same day, orders for Renzo's arrest reach the town of Lecco, to the delight of Don Rodrigo.

Chapters 18–24: Lucia and the Unnamed

Lucia is kidnapped from the convent

News of Renzo's disgrace comes to the convent, but later Lucia is informed that Renzo is safe with his cousin. Their reassurance is short-lived: when they receive no word from Fra Cristoforo for a long time, Agnese travels to Pescarenico, where she learns that he has been ordered by a superior to the town of Rimini. In fact, this has been engineered by Don Rodrigo and Count Attilio, who have leaned on a mutual uncle of the Secret Council, who has leaned on the Father Provincial. Meanwhile, Don Rodrigo has organised a plot to kidnap Lucia from the convent. This involves a great robber baron whose name has not been recorded, and who hence is called l'Innominato, the Unnamed.

Gertrude, blackmailed by Egidio, a neighbor (acquaintance of l'Innominato and Gertrude's lover), persuades Lucia to run an errand which will take her outside the convent for a short while. In the street Lucia is seized and bundled into a coach. After a nightmarish journey, Lucia arrives at the castle of the Unnamed, where she is locked in a chamber.

The Unnamed with Cardinal Borromeo

The Unnamed is troubled by the sight of her, and spends a horrible night in which memories of his past and the uncertainty of his future almost drive him to suicide. Meanwhile, Lucia spends a similarly restless night, during which she vows to renounce Renzo and maintain perpetual virginity if she is delivered from her predicament. Towards the morning, on looking out of his window, the Unnamed sees throngs of people walking past. They are going to listen to the famous Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Federigo Borromeo. On impulse, the Unnamed leaves his castle in order to meet this man. This meeting prompts a miraculous conversion which marks the turning-point of the novel. The Unnamed announces to his men that his reign of terror is over. He decides to take Lucia back to her native land under his own protection, and with the help of the archbishop the deed is done.

Chapters 25–27: Fall of Don Rodrigo

The astonishing course of events leads to an atmosphere in which Don Rodrigo can be defied openly and his fortunes take a turn for the worse. Don Abbondio is reprimanded by the archbishop.

Lucia, miserable about her vow to renounce Renzo, still frets about him. He is now the subject of diplomatic conflict between Milan and Bergamo. Her life is not improved when a wealthy busybody, Donna Prassede, insists on taking her into her household and admonishing her for getting mixed up with a good-for-nothing like Renzo. Donna Prassede tries to warp Lucia's mindset of Renzo by making him seem evil.

Renzo and Agnes institute a correspondence using trustworthy literate people to write and read from them. A few letters in, Agnes does what she had promised Lucia and gives Renzo 50 crowns and tells him about Lucia's vow to not marry him. Renzo is enraged and refuses to accept both. He wants to return the crowns and ask Lucia why she made that vow.

Chapters 28–30: Famine and war

The government of Milan is unable to keep bread prices down by decree and the city is swamped by beggars. The lazzaretto is filled with the hungry and sick. Lazzarettos are sometimes churches or convents as in Chapter 30-33.

Meanwhile, the Thirty Years' War brings more calamities. The last three dukes of the house of Gonzaga die without legitimate heirs sparking a war for control of northern Italy, with France and the Holy Roman Empire backing rival claimants. In September 1629, German armies under Count Rambaldo di Collalto descend on Italy, looting and destroying. Agnese, Don Abbondio and Perpetua take refuge in the well-defended territory of the Unnamed. In their absence, their village is wrecked by the mercenaries.

Chapters 31–33: Plague

These chapters are occupied with an account of the plague of 1630, largely based on Giuseppe Ripamonti's De peste quae fuit anno 1630 (published in 1640). Manzoni's full version of this, Storia della Colonna Infame, was finished in 1829, but was not published until it was included as an appendix to the revised edition of 1842.

The plague is not believed to actually be the plague by many, slow progress helps doubts arise in common people and even doctors. Most people in Italy think it has to do with Frenchmen enlisting witches to make poison from spiders. The spider poison is then spread around and that is how they believe the plague is spread.

As more people get sick, the capuchins help them in the Lazarettos. A memorable one is Fra Frederick. The Tribunal of Health is the government of Italy realize they need more people to help contain and manage the plague. Three classes are created under the Tribunal of Health. The 3rd class is the monatti who do the brunt work of carrying and deposing of the dead bodies, the 2nd apparittori are people who precede funerals, and the 1st class is the commissaries who oversee both of the lower two classes.

Another story/rumor is spread to back up the spider witch poison theory.

The end of August 1630 sees the death in Milan of the original villains of the story. It happens like so, back in Don Rodrigo's place, he is joyful and makes fun of the so called illness. Until, one night after a party he catches the plague. In his fright, trusts Grizo to go get a doctor for him. Grizo betrays him for Don Roderick's riches and turns him into the monatti. Grizo is then hit by karma when his greed to check for money in Don Roderigo's clothes makes him fall ill too, and dies quickly.

Renzo, troubled by Agnese's letters and recovering from plague, finally decides to search out Lucia. He returns to his native village to find that many of the inhabitants are dead and that his house and vineyard have been destroyed. He also finds Tony there, sick and brain damaged. The people put money in a bowl of vinegar to clean it from the plague.

There is a new way of life during the plague Renzo sees while traveling. Those who have survived the plague walk boldly while those who are healthy and have not, are fearful.

Renzo also finds Don Abbondio and gets information on what has happened. Don Abbondio urges him to go back, Renzo refuses. The warrant, and Don Rodrigo, are forgotten. A childhood friend of Renzo's tells him that Lucia is in Milan. He travels to Milan.

Chapters 34–38: Conclusion

On his arrival in Milan, Renzo is astonished at the state of the city. In Milan, it is mostly deserted. People are very wary and sad. Renzo sees all the empty houses and a mourning mother. His highland clothes invite suspicion that he is an "anointer"; that is, a foreign agent deliberately spreading plague in some way. He learns that Lucia is now languishing at the Lazzaretto of Milan, along with 16,000 other victims of the plague.

While trying to ask for directions he is accused of having the spider poison. In the paranoia, everyone in the city believes it. Renzo is then caught between the growing mob and the monatti. The monatti grab Renzo and save him.

In the monatti cart, Renzo is ill at ease. The monatti act like bullies and cheer to the never end of the plague. After riding for a bit, they reach the lazaretto. Renzo escapes the monatti and sees all the sick people. Chapter 33 ends with Renzo stepping over the threshold of the lazaretto hoping to find Lucia.

But in fact, Lucia is already recuperating. Renzo and Lucia are reunited by Fra Cristoforo, but only after Renzo first visits and forgives the dying Don Rodrigo. The friar absolves her of her vow of celibacy. Renzo walks through a rainstorm to see Agnese at the village of Pasturo. When they all return to their native village, Lucia and Renzo are finally married by Don Abbondio and the couple make a fresh start at a silk-mill at the gates of Bergamo.

Unabridged

• Three new translations (1834), one of them printed in New York under the title Lucia, The Betrothed.
• Two new translations (1844, 1845); the 1844 translation was the one most reprinted in the 19th century
• The Betrothed (1924), by Daniel J. Connor
• The Betrothed (1951, with later revisions), by Archibald Colquhoun, ISBN 978-0-375-71234-0^[16]
• The Betrothed (1972), by Bruce Penman, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-044274-X
• The Betrothed (2022), by Michael F. Moore, The Modern Library, ISBN 9780679643562. Review

Abridged

• The Betrothed Lovers (1828), by the Rev. Charles Swan, published at Pisa.^[16]
• Promise of Fidelity (2002), by Omero Sabatini, ISBN 0-7596-5344-5

Reviewing previous translations in 1972, Bruce Penham found that the vast majority of English translations used the first unrevised and inferior 1827 edition of the novel in Italian and often cut material unannounced.^[17]