The Pirates of Penzance

The first act takes place at a rocky, secluded seaside spot in Cornwall, in the west of England. A group of pirates is celebrating the 21st birthday of Frederic, who is now free to become a full-fledged pirate. Ruth, the "Pirate Maid", tells the story of Frederic's past: she had been his nursemaid, and Frederic's father had asked that he be made an apprentice "pilot", or marine navigator. She misheard the word, and Frederic became an apprentice pirate, a life she also chose when she realized how angry Frederic's family would be.

Frederic tells the Pirate King that he will leave his life of piracy and seek honest work. Ruth joins Frederic, hoping that they can be married before he, who has spent most of his life at sea, realizes that there are younger and prettier women in the world. Unfortunately for Ruth, a group of lovely young women, all the daughters of a Major General, arrive on the scene, and Frederic is entranced. He asks if one of them will accept his love and guide him to an honest way of life, and the beautiful Mabel accepts the offer. The pirates, meanwhile, return and seize the women, intent on marrying them. The girls' father, Major General Stanley, arrives, and when the pirates refuse to release his daughters, he claims to be an orphan, knowing that this group of pirates is notoriously tender-hearted and won't victimize an orphan. The pirates relent.

Act II opens in the ruined chapel of General Stanley's estate. It is night, but he cannot sleep, tormented by the knowledge that he lied to the pirates about being an orphan. Frederic, meanwhile, realizes that his duty demands that he put a stop to the pirates' lawlessness, and he prepares to lead a group of local policemen to arrest his former comrades. Alone, Frederic is confronted by the Pirate King and Ruth, who tell him that they had just realized that Frederic had been born on February 29, which means that Frederic has only had five birthdays, and he is supposed to be an apprentice until his 21st birthday. Duty compels Frederic to rejoin the pirates to fulfill the terms of his apprenticeship,and to tell the Pirate King of General Stanley's lie.

Frederic tells Mabel the bad news: she is saddened, but will wait as long as she has to for him. The pirates invade the estate, intent on capturing the daughters and punishing the General. The police intervene but are quickly defeated. All seems lost, but the pirates quickly surrender when ordered to do so "in Queen Victoria's name". It turns out that the pirates are noblemen who have gone wrong; they promise to return to their former lives; the General allows them to marry his daughters; and all ends happily.