The King of Antioch, Antiochus, has a beautiful daughter who attracts more than her fair share of suitors. To help decide who is best suited for his daughter, Antiochus has devised a riddle which must be solved before anyone can take his daughter’s hand in marriage. Those who fail wind up with their heads on stakes. Pericles, Prince of Tyre, discovers that solving the riddle reveals the incestuous secret of Antiochus, who has been having a relationship with his daughter. After solving the riddle, Pericles flees, afraid that Antiochus will seek revenge for knowing his secret.
Flight first lands Pericles in Tarsus. Stricken with famine, Pericles has brought aid to its governor, Cleon, and his wife, Dionyza. Flight next lands Pericles in Pentapolis after a shipwreck strands him there with nothing but his armor. Rescued by fishermen, Pericles winds up in the court of the king just in time for the celebration of his daughter, Thaisa. By winning a jousting tournament, Pericles also wins himself a wife.
Meanwhile, back home in Tyre, the gods have taken it upon themselves to punish Antiochus and his daughter with death by fire. Now in the absence of a leader, some nobles press Helicanus, Pericles' counselor, to wear the crown, but his loyalty to Pericles urges him to put things off for a year so that Pericles might return to take the throne himself.
A few months later, Thaisa is pregnant and Pericles is receiving word from Helicanus that it is time for his return. The ship sets sail and a tempest arrives just as Thaisa is going into labor. A nurse informs Pericles that he is a father, but that Thaisa has died during childbirth. Amidst all the confusion, Pericles caves to the superstition that carrying a corpse aboard the ship will bring about a curse. As a result, Thaisa is put into a coffin and thrown overboard. Fearing that his daughter, named Marina, may not survive the entire trip back to Tyre, Pericles once again stops at Tarsus where a grateful Cleon and Dionyza agree to take care of her until his return.
Meanwhile, at Ephesus, the coffin carrying the dead Thaisa has washed ashore. A physician opens the coffin and determines that the woman inside only appears to be dead. He revives her from her deep state of unconsciousness. Believing that it could never be possible to find Pericles and reunite, she travels to the Temple of Diana to become a priestess worshipping the goddess.
Many years later, Marina is now grown into a beautiful young woman. She has not, however, ever managed to leave Tarsus. As a result, Dionyza has with each passing year grown more and more jealous of Marina and when it is clear that her beauty now outshines her own, plots to have the daughter of Pericles killed. A member of the conspiracy, Leonine, takes Marina for a walk. Before he can carry out the execution, however, a roving band of pirates appear and kidnap her. Leonine escapes and decides not to tell Dionyza the truth.
Meanwhile, in Mytilene, three whoremongers sit in their brothel complaining about the lousy state of their business lately. Almost as if by fate, an offer appears to buy off Marina from a group of pirates. Marina, still being in possession of her chastity, naturally resists the intention of the three.
Over in Tarsus, Cleon cannot believe that his wife actually ordered the death of the daughter of the man who saved their people from starvation. Dionyza presses Cleon to agree to the official story: Marina died of natural causes.
Meanwhile, in Mytilene, Marina, intent on keeping her chastity, has turned out to be a bigger problem for the brothel owners. What was supposed to be a gold mine for their brothel has turned out to be hardly worth the price they paid for her. Ultimately, a most strange climax to this story occurs: when one of the whoremongers threatens to take her virtue by force, Marina so successfully turns the tables that he winds up agreeing to finance her plans to become a teacher. And then Pericles, having been hopelessly wandering at sea, completely by chance winds up landing in Mytilene.
Pericles’ wandering is not due to bad sailing. He had, indeed, landed in Tarsus and he was, indeed, told that Marina was dead. In his grief, Pericles takes a vow of silence for the rest of his life which will be spent in mourning at sea. The governor of Mytilene, Lysimachus, learning of Pericles’ muteness, suggests that the charms of a particular young woman might just be enough to cure him. Astonished by the eerie resemblance the young woman bears to his dead wife Thaisa, Pericles is moved to speak for the first time since his vow. In the course of the conversation, enough details are provided by Marina for Pericles to figure out who she is. Father and daughter celebrate their reunion. Overcome with the recent circumstances, Pericles falls asleep and in a dream vision Diana instructs him to go to Ephesus and enter her temple.
At the Temple of Diana, it is announced that Lysimachus will marry Marina, but only after Pericles has carried out Diana’s instructions. They accompany him to Ephesus where, following Diana’s directions, he identifies himself as Pericles and proceeds to tell the story of Marina’s birth and what happened afterward. Thaisa, still a priestess in the temple, recognizes him. Husband, wife, and daughter celebrate their reunion. Pericles announces that he and Thaisa will reign over Pentapolis while Lysimachus will do the same in Tyre.
