Scene I:
In the Heavens

The Lord has completed the work of creation. He is surrounded by a choir of celebrating-praising angels. Lucifer, the fourth archangel defies God and rebels against him: he cynically criticises the work of creation and demands his 'share'. In his dispute with the Lord it is not merely the conflict of Good and the Bad, it is not materialism rebelling against a world order controlled by ideals, but rather Lucifer desires to fight against the mechanical order of the world, he is the 'spirit of negation' that demands disharmony. The share that Lucifer - now dispelled from heaven - gets, consists of the trees of knowledge and immortality in Paradise.

Scene II:
In Paradise

The joy of the first couple, Adam and Eve, and the harmony of Eden are disturbed by the appearance of Lucifer. He offers the first humans the fruits of the two forbidden trees and gets them to rebel against the Lord. They taste the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge. But then Cherub stops them as they want to reach the tree of immortality. Adam and Eve are punished: they are to leave Paradise.

Scene III:
Outside Paradise, a Place with Palm Trees

Adam is making a fence, and Eve is building a bower; they are full of hopes preparing for their life on earth. Lucifer acquaints them with the powers of nature. Then they are tormented by doubts. Where are the boundaries of existence, what will be the future like? On Adam's request Lucifer makes them to sleep and have a dream. With this the so-called biblical framework scenes are ended and the series of the historical scenes begins.

Scene IV:
In Egypt

Adam is a mighty pharaoh, but he is unhappy. One of the slaves building the pharaoh's pyramid is beaten to death. His last words are: "Millions for one". The slave's wife, Eve diverts the pharaoh's attention from his glorious plans to the wailing of the people. Adam-pharaoh then raises Eve to his throne, stops the construction work and liberates the slaves. Lucifer points to a mummy rolling down the stairs, indicating the vanity of the belief in everlasting glory. The ideal of the free state is born in the pharaoh's mind.

Scene V:
In Athens

While Adam as the military leader, Miltiades, is fighting far away from his home, the demagogues stir up the free citizens of Athens against him and they label the leader a traitor. The people want to take revenge on his wife (Lucia-Eve) and his son (Chimon). Adam arrives wounded, yet victorious, and the people surrender, but as soon as he discharges his army, they again demand his head. The ideal of freedom and equality gets distorted.

Scene VI:
In Rome

In the decadent empire capital the aristocrats (Adam-Sergiolus, Eve-Julia, Lucifer-Milo) are carousing and pursue pleasures, while plague is sweeping through the streets of the city. The events lead to a tragedy. Lucifer invites a funeral procession from the street outside. Hippia, a 'harlot' kisses the corpse of the person that died because of the plague. The Apostle Peter curses the pampered generation and makes a prophecy about the fall of Rome. He proclaims Christian fraternity, and baptises the dying Hippia, too. Adam - now grown sick of all this - feels inspired by this new ideal.

Scene VII:
In Constantinople

Adam enters as the knight Tancred and Lucifer is his armour bearer. He is returning from the holy war with his fellow knights, but the citizens are afraid of robbing and looting and refuse to give shelter to the knights of the cross. Tancred does not see the point in the theological polemics of his time, why would people have to be condemned to the stake for a difference of just one letter, the letter 'i'. He saves Isaura (Eve) from the hands of his own soldiers, but their love cannot be fulfilled, because she is preparing to bury herself in a nunnery on the account of his father's vow. Adam now yearns for an age without ideals: "I do not want to be animated more..."

Scene VIII:
In Prague

Adam in the personality of Kepler would escape in the scientific activities of a court astronomer, but he is forced to work in the service of the pseudo-science of emperor Rudolph II's court, at the same time he wants to provide for his ambitious wife. However, Barbara-Eve 'repays' his sacrifice only with infidelity. Kepler falls in a dream while drinking wine and hears the 'hymn of the future'. He travels in his dreams to the Paris of the French revolution.

Scene IX:
Paris, Place de Grève

The people of Paris are fanaticised and bloodthirsty. Lucifer is the executioner. Adam-Danton's first words are: "Egality, fraternity, liberty!" He advocates the rightfulness of using violence in the revolution. But when Danton meets the young marquis and his proud sister (Eve), his soul is suddenly shaken, as 'a piece of heaven descends' with Eve on the scaffold, and Danton wants to save them. He rejects the approach of the revolutionary plebeian woman, who is Eve's lowly counterpart in the scene. Finally the Jacobins condemn Danton to death.

Scene X:
In Prague

Kepler-Adam waking up from his ecstatic dream shudders at the thought of bloodshed, nevertheless he is not disappointed in the ideas of the revolution; he continues to believe that they will once be realised in a purified form. He imparts this to his student whom he encourages to rid himself from prejudices and think freely. His seduced wife, Barbara is disappointed, because the courtier only wanted to use her against her husband. At the end Kepler expresses his belief in progress.

Scene XI:
In London

Adam is an observant citizen and Lucifer keeps him company in this scene. This scene presents a series of episodes of the free world. We enter Madách's own age. There is 'greed for gain and selfishness' everywhere, everything has become a commodity. Adam is completely disappointed. Even to win Eve's love he would have to rely on money and gifts. A monumental dance macabre closes the scene. Eleven typical players of the age jump into the grave, except Eve, who 'passes over it with glory'.

Scene XII:
The Yard of a Phalanstery

Adam enters the future. The phalanstery is governed by the sense of functionality of science, because mankind has consumed all the natural resources of the earth. Society is ruled by scientists. Man is just a number. Luther, Cassius, Plato and Michelangelo are punished because they fail at doing useful work. The notions of art and family have been exiled to the museum in the phalanstery. Decisions about the children's future are made based on their sculls' shape. The children are taken away from their mother to be raised by the phalanstery for the benefit of society. This would be the fate of Eve (a mother), too, but Adam intervenes. For the scientists, the love between Adam and Eve is just 'madness', and so Adam must be saved by Lucifer's intervention.

Scene XIII:
The Space

Adam is again disappointed. He even wants to throw away his life. But in the icy space he recognises his situation: "What good will the life do without love and struggle?" Lucifer seems to have victory over man. He throws Adam into nothingness, but the Spirit of the Earth intervenes. Thus Adam returns, only to continue his fight for new ideas, realising that 'man's aim has been this struggle itself'.

Scene XIV:
"Mountainous, treeless landscape covered with snow and ice"

The 'Eskimo scene'. The Earth has slowly grown cold and nature's doom has caught up with man. Some Eskimos are still scraping along and one of them receives the strangers in his home, thinking they are gods, and even surrenders his wife (Eve) to them. Adam thus horrified, asks Lucifer to end his dream-journey.

Scene XV:
"...landscape with palm-trees
as in the third scene"

Adam waking from his dream and frustrated with man's future is now tempted to commit suicide. But he is prevented from executing his plan by learning about Eve's pregnancy. Mankind will continue to exist. The Lord appears and listens to Adam's list of questions and doubts, and he also defines Lucifer's place in the dialectical order of the created world. The first couple then receive from the Lord the gift of hope in his advice for their journey: "I told you, man: fight, trust and be full of hope!"