"Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,

Are of imagination all compact..."

Egeus offers his daughter Hermia a choice. She can either marry Demetrius, the man he chose for her, become a nun, or be put to death. Hermia goes with a fourth option: running into the forest to elope with her lover Lysander. Demetrius follows, and Hermia's best friend Helena (herself in love with Demetrius) follows after him.

The love triangle is complicated enough as it is, but when the faerie king Oberon, along with the troublemaker spirit Puck, pulls a prank on his queen involving a love potion, human and faerie alike are tangled up in a hilarious web of confusion and unpredictable romances.