Alina is a country girl in Provence, kidnapped by pirates and carried off to the distant kingdom of Golconda: the old king of Golconda falls in love with her and they are married; then the king dies, leaving her a widow and queen. This is the preamble. Golconda cannot remain without a king. When the period of mourning is over, Alina's restless slaves and friends, pretenders, princes with their necessary hangers-on, everybody urges her to choose a new husband. There is one candidate to hand: more handsome, perhaps, than the others, certainly more noble and daring, Seide. But Alina is locked in a memory: she remembers the only man she has ever loved, a minor French officer Ernesto Volmar; she would like to postpone the decision eternally.

The hour is nigh, in the throne room Alina is about to utter the fateful name, when we hear three cannon shots; a ship from France is announced, the ambassador is a youth called Ernesto Volmar. Alina is dizzy with excitement as she sees life begin again. Only one person understands what Alina feels, her friend and confidante, like her a French girl also kidnapped by the pirates. She too has left a man behind, but in her case it is her husband, a certain Belfiore, with whom she argued incessantly. This girl, Fiorina, is confused; she does not know whether she longs to meet him again or whether she is afraid of such a meeting.

And here they are in Golconda - Volmar, lost in thought, aristocratic, in love with a young maiden who had been torn away from him by kidnappers and with him an exuberant, worldly officer, Belfiore... Here the story takes on a double aspect. On the one hand, there is the world of India, the oppositions between men and women, the needs of the dominant, the courtly palace full of intriguers and spies, an air of mystery in the colours and shadows. Seide, who quickly discovers Alina's love for the young foreigner, incites his faithful followers to revolt. On the other hand, there is the foursome of lovers and spouses. Most important of all, there is Alina, who, as in all the great fables, eventually decides to make Volmar undergo three tests to see if he still loves her. With the help of a sleeping potion, Alina and Fiorina arrange an elaborate fantasy. First, Alina appears hidden by veils amongst her slaves and lets Volmar hear her voice: the effect is shattering. Belfiore, too, believing he is back in their French farmhouse, hears Fiorina's voice. Volmar is enchanted, Belfiore terrified... the two women explain that it is a typical form of mental distraction, the traveller in a foreign land thinks that he hears the voice of his own land. Next, Alina nominates Volmar as the future king, creating a scandal in the court. She hopes that he will refuse. He will be worthy of her only if he remains faithful to Alina whom he once loved, given that be does not realise that he has found her again. Volmar declines the offer and the curtains close on the first act. Finally, in the most bizarre theatricality, Alina used objects that were recovered from the shipwreck and goodness knows what else made in the court, to reconstruct the little green in Provence, where five years before, she met Volmar. She tells him that everything that had happened in the past five years had been a dream. Volmar is incredulous, and then he abandons himself to love. Now that Provence has been reconstructed, Fiorina decides to put Belfiore to the test, too. She treats him as though he had dreamt of Golconda after a session of heavy drinking, and Belfiore, after bewailing his fate to all, nostalgically recounts his dream, seasoning it with details of amorous conquests...

In the meanwhile the revolt bursts out. The girls have to explain their pantomime to the two men with lightning speed and ask them for their help. Seide bursts in, face to face with Alina, He threatens her, then invokes love, and receiving her haughty refusal he curses her and throws her in prison. Too late: the Frenchmen, who have come to protect Alina's kingdom, led by Volmar, who now has a stronger motivation, gain the upper hand and restore the throne. Alina thanks everybody, and is moved by the gratitude of her people. But the opera closed with her soaring song of love to Volmar: Eri di notte il sogno, eri il pensier del di. 'You were my dream by night, you were my thought by day'.