What happens in The Comedy of Errors

Egeon, an old merchant from Syracuse, stands before the Duke of Ephesus expecting to die by sunset. The two cities are at war, and any Syracusian caught in Ephesus must pay a ransom or be executed. Egeon has no money, but he has a story. Years ago a shipwreck split his family in two, scattering his wife, his twin sons, and the twin servants he raised to wait on them. He has spent decades searching. Moved by the tale, the Duke grants him one day to find the ransom.

Egeon doesn’t know it, but both his sons are now in Ephesus. One twin, Antipholus of Syracuse, has just landed with his servant Dromio, hunting for the brother he lost. The other, Antipholus of Ephesus, has lived here for years, married to a woman named Adriana, and keeps a Dromio of his own. The two pairs of identical men, each unaware the other exists, wander the same small city on the same day. Confusion is inevitable, and it comes fast.

It starts with money. The Syracusan Antipholus hands his Dromio some gold to hold, then runs into the Ephesian Dromio, who knows nothing about it and begs him to come home to dinner. Antipholus beats the servant and decides the town is full of witches. Meanwhile Adriana, sure her husband is avoiding her, drags the wrong Antipholus home and locks the door behind them. The real husband arrives, finds himself shut out of his own house, and storms off in a rage to dine elsewhere and give a gold chain meant for his wife to a courtesan instead.

The errors multiply with cruel speed. Inside, the visiting Antipholus falls in love with Adriana’s sister Luciana and courts her, baffling her completely. A goldsmith named Angelo hands him a chain ordered by the other twin, who later refuses to pay for a chain he never received and is arrested for the debt. The wrong Dromio carries bail money to the wrong master. The courtesan demands a ring. Everywhere, men are greeted by name, handed goods, and accused of broken promises by people they have never met. The Syracusans grow more certain that Ephesus is bewitched.

The worst comes when Adriana hires a quack named Doctor Pinch to exorcise her husband, who she now believes is mad. Pinch binds the Ephesian Antipholus and his Dromio and locks them away. The Syracusan pair, hunted as madmen, draw swords and flee into a priory for sanctuary. When the angry crowd, Adriana, and a chain-seeking merchant gather at the priory gates, the Abbess refuses to give the fugitives up.

Everything resolves at once. The Duke arrives to oversee Egeon’s execution and finds himself facing a crowd of contradictions. Both sets of twins finally stand on the same stage, and the Duke confesses he cannot tell which is which. Egeon recognizes the son who has lived in Ephesus, and the Abbess steps forward to reveal that she is Emilia, Egeon’s long-lost wife, who survived the same wreck. The two Antipholuses see each other; the two Dromios meet at last and walk off hand in hand. The family scattered by a storm is whole again. The Duke pardons Egeon, Antipholus of Syracuse is free to court Luciana, and the day that began with a death sentence ends with a feast.