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A Poet, a Painter, and a Jeweler come to Timon’s house, hoping to sell him their wares, for Timon is a very generous man. Timon enters and learns from a messenger that his friend Ventidius is in jail, so he sends money to pay for his freedom. He helps out several other citizens in need and gladly accepts verses from the Poet, an image from the Painter, and jewels from the Jeweler. Apemantus, the local cynic, arrives at Timon’s house, as does the Athenian military general Alcibiades.
Timon throws a feast at his home, and all his friends are in attendance. Apemantus declares he has come merely to be an observer of the villainous flatterers who fill Timon’s house. Timon speaks of his fondness for his friends and the pleasure he finds in giving them gifts, all without expecting reciprocation. Timon’s servant Flavius worries that Timon will run out of money if he keeps being so generous. Most of Athens’s citizens are amazed that Timon continues to be so generous, as it seems to them that he must have some magical power to possess such unending bounty.
Three creditors, friends of Timon who lend him money, call their debts due and send servants to Timon’s door with bills in hand. Timon tries to dismiss them, but they won’t be sent away. Timon asks Flavius why he has creditors at the door, and Flavius explains that Timon is deep in debt. Timon orders him to sell his land, but it is already mortgaged. Timon asks why Flavius never told him about the state of his affairs before, and Flavius insists that he had tried, but Timon always refused to listen. Flavius says that everyone has always loved Timon, but now that his finances are gone, those who praised him before have abandoned him. Timon doesn’t believe him and sends servants to ask his friends for loans, but Flavius says he has already tried that, and no one would lend him anything.
Three of Timon’s servants arrive separately at houses of Timon’s friends to ask for loans, but each man makes excuses and refuses. Servants also ask the newly released Ventidius for a loan, but he refuses as well. Creditors’ servants swarm around Timon’s house, though they note how ironic it is that their masters wear gifts from Timon while they demand payment on loans he took out to buy said gifts. Timon is enraged to be trapped in his house by groups of creditors’ servants, and he plans a final dinner party.
Timon invites all his friends and other lords, who show up eager for an extravagant meal. But when the dishes are uncovered, they are met with a “feast” of stones and lukewarm water. Bitterly cursing his fair-weather friends, Timon casts stones at them and then sets out to leave the city.
Meanwhile, the military general Alcibiades argues with Athenians senators about the fate of one of his friends, who was sentenced to death for having killed a man in a rage. Alcibiades tries to save his friend, but he ends up annoying the senators so much that they banish him. Alcibiades leaves, planning to raise an army to attack Athens.
Timon sets off into the wilderness, cursing Athens and its peoples as he crosses the city boundary. Back at his house, his servants mourn his departure, sad that a person’s generosity could lay them so low. Flavius gathers the estate’s last bit of money and dispenses it among Timon’s former staff. Then, with everyone dismissed, he sets out to find Timon in the woods.
Having established himself in a cave, Timon now digs for edible roots, only to discover a hidden cache of gold. Struck by the irony of his discovery now that he no longer needs it, Timon takes some and buries the rest. Then he is visited by all manner of men in the woods, starting with Alcibiades. When he hears Alcibiades’s intention to destroy Athens, he gives him a donation in gold and urges him to massacre everyone.
Next, Apemantus comes to Timon’s cave in the forest and scorns him, remarking that his fall came about from being so generous to a bunch of no-good flatterers. The two insult each other, then Timon remarks that his fall has made him so miserable because he’s never known suffering. His misanthropy is therefore more understandable than Apemantus’s cynicism. The two men discuss their desires to turn the world over to the beasts, but their discussion ends in insults, so Apemantus departs.
Then Flavius arrives, offering Timon money and weeping. Impressed at this show of pity, Timon realizes that Flavius was the one honest man he knew in Athens, and he is the one man to whom his frustration with humanity doesn’t apply. Timon gives him gold and orders him to leave.
Meanwhile, the Poet and Painter have heard that Timon has gold, so they go into the wilderness to ingratiate themselves to him. Timon entertains himself by confusing the men with riddling language, then chases them off with curses. Later Flavius returns with two senators who announce that the people have determined Timon’s treatment was unfair, and they want him to return to Athens. The senators believe Timon’s presence in Athens will somehow halt Alcibiades’s invasion, but they can’t sway Timon.
Back at the gates of Athens, Alcibiades has assembled his army. The senators attempt to defend the city, explaining that not everyone in Athens insulted Alcibiades and Timon, and they ask that Alcibiades come into the city in peace, without killing everyone. Alcibiades agrees, and he punishes only those who have slighted him and Timon. Then a soldier arrives with news that Timon has died, and Alcibiades reads his epitaph. Though Timon died thinking everyone hated him, Alcibiades honors him as a man much more admired in Athens than he believed.
