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John Gower, the play’s narrator, enters to tell about the kingdom of Antioch, where King Antiochus and his daughter are engaged in an incestuous relationship. Antiochus has kept suitors from marrying her by requiring that they solve a riddle, with death as the result of failure. Pericles, the prince of Tyre, is clever enough to solve the riddle, but the answer reveals the sexual relationship between the king and his daughter. Not wanting the speak the truth aloud, Pericles pretends to have failed, and Antiochus gives him forty days before he is sentenced to die. But Antiochus knows that Pericles has figured out his secret, so he sends an assassin to kill him.
Back home in Tyre, Pericles worries that Antiochus will take some form of revenge, whether a military attack or an attempt on his life. Helicanus, his loyal councilor, advises him to go abroad until Antiochus is no longer after him. Pericles first goes to Tarsus, where king Cleon and his wife Dionyza bemoan the famine that has beset their nation. Pericles arrives with corn and saves them. But a letter soon arrives from Helicanus calling Pericles back to Tyre, so he sets off.
On the way home, Pericles is shipwrecked in a storm and washes ashore near Pentapolis. Some fishermen tell him about king Simonides’s daughter, a lovely young woman who will marry whoever wins a jousting contest the following day. Pericles determines to enter the contest. He ends up winning the tournament, and afterward dines with Simonides and his daughter Thaisa. They are both very impressed with him, and soon a marriage is arranged for Pericles and Thaisa.
Meanwhile, in Tyre, Helicanus reveals that Antiochus and his daughter have died in a fire caused by a lightning strike from the heavens. Other citizens want to crown Helicanus as king, but Helicanus says they should wait to see if Pericles returns, since it’s now safe for him to do so.
In Pentapolis, Pericles hears of recent events and determines to go back to Tyre. He and Thaisa, now pregnant, set sail, only to encounter a terrible storm. Thaisa dies in childbirth during the tempest, and the shipmaster insists on the body being thrown overboard to quell the storm. Pericles complies, casting her into the sea sealed in a chest. He then sets a course for Tarsus. Knowing the infant won’t survive the journey to Tyre, he visits Cleon and Dionyza and asks them to look after the child. They agree, and he sets off again for Tyre.
Meanwhile, the chest containing Thaisa’s body washes up in Ephesus. The chest is brought to the wise physician, Cerimon, who discovers that Thaisa is not dead. He revives her with his medicines, then helps her become a priestess at the city’s great Temple of Diana.
Fourteen years later, Marina has grown into a young woman. She is so beautiful, talented, and virtuous that she far outshines Dionyza’s daughter. The governess of Tarsus therefore hires an assassin to murder Marina, but at the last moment, pirates seize her and take her to Mytilene to sell her as a prostitute.
Sold to a brothel run by Pander and Bawd, Marina refuses to give up her honor, despite the many men who come wanting to buy her virginity. She manages to convince the men who come to the brothel that her honor is sacred, and they leave seeking virtue in their own lives. Soon, she gets work in a reputable house, educating girls. Meanwhile, Pericles goes on a trip to Tarsus to reunite with his daughter, but Cleon and Dionyza tell him that she has died, and they show him the monument they have had built in her honor. Pericles is distraught, and he sets out to sea again.
Pericles and his crew arrive in Mytilene, and the governor Lysimachus goes out to meet the ships. Helicanus explains that Pericles has not spoken in three months, and Lysimachus says he knows someone in his city who may be able to make him talk. Marina is brought to the ship, and she tells Pericles that her own sufferings must match his. He asks her about her birth, and she says her name is Marina. Startled, Pericles asks her to continue, and to his surprise finds that everything this Marina says matches the story of his own lost Marina. They are reunited, but Pericles is exhausted and falls asleep. The goddess Diana comes to him in a dream and tells him to go to her temple in Ephesus, where he must speak publicly of his trials. When he wakes, he promises Marina to Lysimachus, and they all set off for Ephesus.
Pericles tells his story at the temple in Ephesus, where Thaisa is in attendance. When she realizes that the man speaking is her lost husband, she faints, and Cerimon explains to Pericles that she is Thaisa. The whole family is reunited, and overjoyed, they embrace.
Gower returns with an epilogue, where he summarizes the fates of all the major characters in the play. He notes that Cleon and Dionyza have been killed by their own people, who revolted against them when they found out what they had done to Marina. As for Pericles and his family, Gower emphasizes that their demonstration of fortitude and enduring virtue earned them their happy reunion.
