What happens in Romeo and Juliet

Two servants pick a fight in the streets of Verona, and within minutes both great houses, Montague and Capulet, have their swords out. The Prince stops the brawl and warns that the next man to break the peace will die for it. Into this old feud walks Romeo, the Montague son, sixteen-or-so and miserable over a girl named Rosaline who wants nothing to do with him. His cousin Benvolio talks him into crashing a Capulet party to compare Rosaline against other beauties. At that party Romeo sees Juliet, who is not yet fourteen, and forgets Rosaline entirely. They speak, they kiss, and only afterward does each learn the other belongs to the enemy.

That same night Romeo slips away from Mercutio and Benvolio and climbs into the Capulet orchard, where he finds Juliet at her window, wishing aloud that he were not a Montague. They confess their feelings, and Juliet, practical and quick, proposes marriage. If his intentions are honorable, she says, send word by nine the next morning. Romeo goes straight to Friar Lawrence, who agrees to marry them in secret, hoping the match might turn the families’ hatred to peace. With the Nurse carrying messages between them, the two are wed that same afternoon in the Friar’s cell.

The peace lasts an hour. Out in the heat, Tybalt, Juliet’s hot-tempered cousin, comes looking for Romeo. Romeo, now secretly Tybalt’s kinsman, refuses to fight. His friend Mercutio takes the refusal for cowardice and draws instead, and Tybalt stabs him under Romeo’s arm. Mercutio dies cursing both houses. Undone, Romeo kills Tybalt and flees. The Prince spares his life but banishes him to Mantua. Juliet, who learns of the deaths from the Nurse, is torn between grief for her cousin and terror at losing her husband. Romeo spends one night with her, then leaves at dawn.

While he is gone, old Capulet decides his grieving daughter should marry the nobleman Paris, and quickly. When Juliet refuses, her father turns brutal, threatening to throw her out. The Nurse advises her to forget Romeo and take Paris. Alone now, Juliet runs to Friar Lawrence for help. He gives her a desperate plan: drink a potion that will make her seem dead for two days, and she will wake in the family tomb, where Romeo will be waiting to carry her to Mantua. He sends word to Romeo to explain it all. Juliet swallows the potion, and in the morning her family finds her cold in bed and carries her, mourning, to the vault.

The Friar’s letter never reaches Romeo. Instead his servant Balthasar brings him the news that Juliet is dead. Romeo buys poison from a poor apothecary and rides back to Verona to die beside her. At the tomb he meets Paris, who has come to mourn Juliet, and kills him when he tries to make an arrest. Then Romeo lies down by Juliet, drinks the poison, and dies. Friar Lawrence arrives moments too late. Juliet wakes to find her husband dead and the Friar begging her to flee. She refuses. She kisses Romeo, takes his dagger, and stabs herself. The watch raises the alarm, and the two families gather over the bodies of their children. The Friar confesses the whole story, and Capulet and Montague, finally, reach out and shake hands.