ACT 1

A wide square by the Paris door, in Amiens. On the left, an inn with a porch and an outside staircase that leads to the first f loor. At sunset, lively stroll of middle-class people, dressmakers, soldiers.
Edmondo, a brilliant student, is courting, together with his friends, a group of girls and lovingly teases Des Grieux, who stays indifferent: isn’t he attracted by female charm or is he secretly in love with an unreachable girl? In order to stop his friend’s joke, Des Grieux dedicates a love madrigal to the girls and then goes away. The postillion’s cornet blares and the stage coach from Ar ras ar r  ves: onlookers crowd around it. Among the travellers there are sergeant Lescaut, his sister Manon and the middle-aged Geronte De Ravoir, State general treasurer. Des Grieux, immediately attracted by Manon’s beauty, gets close to her and asks her name, talking to her with affected admiration, while Lescaut and Geronte goes up to the first floor, giving instructions to the innkeeper for the arrangement of the luggage and for the dinner. The girl, conquered by Des Grieux’s kind words,  softly tells him her name and confesses her unhappiness for having been forced, by her father’s will, to go to the convent. The young man, full of passion, invites her to rebel against her sad fate and, as Lescaut calls her back to the inn, Des Grieux makes a date with her at nightfall. In the meantime, Geronte and Lescaut get out of the inn: Lescaut, obsequious towards the rich treasurer, accepts his invite to dinner after having told him the family’s plans for Manon who, he suggests, should have a happier future. Geronte takes a hint and, as Lescaut plays cards with a group of students, he calls aside the innkeeper and, offering a bag of money, instructs him to find within an hour a coach with swift horses, to “fly” to Paris with a girl. Edmondo, having listened to the conversation, informs Des Gr ieux, who tells Manon about the old dandy’s plot. He easily convinces her to flee together to Paris with Geronte’s coach. The thing is soon done and Edmondo announces to Geronte the two lovers’ elopement. Lescaut tries to comfort the old libertine, who’s beside himself with rage for having being mocked, assuring him that Manon will soon prefer him, and his richness, to the penniless student.

ACT 2

Paris. A very elegant living room in Geronte’s house.
As Lescaut had expected, Manon has left the poor student and now lives with the old patron in unbridled luxury. But she regrets the few happy moments she spent with her beloved Des Grieux. She asks news about him to her brother, who’s come to visit her. Lescaut tells her that Des Grieux ignores where she is and that he’s trying to get rich with gambling, even cheating, in order to win her back. In the meantime, an endless ceremonial has begun: hairdressers, singers striking up madrigals, musicians, dance lessons to which take part Geronte, powdered old friends and abbots, while refreshments and chocolate are served. Lescaut goes out to find Des Grieux, so to give some relief to his younger sister’s sadness.
It’s too late now to go out for a walk, so Geronte leaves Manon to finish dressing up and goes to order the coach.
Suddenly, Des Grieux comes in: Manon runs towards him but he rejects her, reproaching her cruel abandonment, telling about the desperate days spent reminding of her. Manon, kneeling down, begs forgiveness and soon wins him back with her seductiveness. Geronte finds the two lovers hugging each other. To Geronte’s irony about her prostitute behaviour, Manon answers back with sneer taking the mirror, putting it in Geronte’s face and indicating Des Grieux, as to propose an unlikely comparison. Geronte leaves, menacing revenge. Left alone, Manon swears again fidelity to Des Grieux, ready to live again with him, even though with a little bit of regret for the luxury she has to leave. Lescaut comes back in a rush, urging them to flee since Geronte is arriving with the guards. In the great confusion aroused in looking for a safe exit, Manon lingers in grabbing as many jewels as she can, wasting precious time. The guards arrive and, by Geronte’s sign, they arrest Manon as a thief and prostitute. Des Grieux draws his sward to defend her but Lescaut promptly disarms him: if he is arrested, too, who will save Manon?

ACT 3

The square in the port of Le Havre.
A ship at anchor, a barracks front, a sentinel walking before a close gate. Night is ending.
Lescaut confides to Des Grieux that he has bribed the sentinel, who’s about to mount guard, to set free Manon, doomed with other prostitutes to “people” the Americas. The picket for the change of escort comes out of the barracks. Lescaut gives a nod to the accomplice sentinel (who goes away), then he knocks to the iron bars of a window at the ground floor of the barracks: the windows open and Manon appears. Des Grieux runs towards his beloved and, in a passionate talk, he reassures her that he’ll never leave her and that he’s arranging her flight: she’s to keep ready at the courtyard gate when the soldiers will let out the convicts. As Manon withdraws, a gun shot and shouts are heard. Lescaut rushes in announcing that the deal has failed and he tries to drag Des Grieux away. Meanwhile, a big crowd gathers in front of the barracks, as the sky clears up in dawn. A sergeant gets out with a group of soldiers surrounding the prisoners; the captain gets off the ship with a group of sailors; the roll call begins. As the women are called, they make for the ship among the biting comments of the crowd. But the beautiful Manon arouses admiration and emotion: anguished, she bids the last farewell to Des Grieux, who’s got cautiously close to her, evading the soldiers’ surveillance. When he’s discovered and driven away, middleclass and common people try to protect him, while Des Grieux tears Manon from the sergeant’s hands and shields her with his body. The turmoil draws the attention of the captain and, in front of him, Des Grieux bursts out in a excruciating supplication: he begs the captain to engage him as a shipboy, so he can follow to America the woman he madly loves. The captain accepts, among general enthusiasm. 

ACT 4

An endless barren land.
Manon and Des Grieux, forced to flee from New Orleans where the young man thinks of having killed a rival in a duel, are wandering in an endless horizon, exhausted for the long walk, torn, hungry. Manon is wornout for fever and thirst: she begs Des Grieux to go and look for help and, in solitude, she painfully recalls her past. The young man is back, desperate for having found no sign of life, no help. Manon feels death approaching, holds Des Grieux, who’s keeping her with passion, asks him forgiveness for all the wrongs she’s done and demands the last kisses. Then she dies. Mad for sorrow, Des Grieux falls unconscious on the body of his beloved woman.