Pericles travels to Antioch to win the hand of the King's daughter by solving a riddle - only to discover that its answer is a secret so dark that he will be put to death if he reveals it. When Pericles asks for more time, the King grows suspicious and dispatches an assassin; Pericles, however, has already made his escape by sea. But then a storm shipwrecks him on an island, where he meets and marries Thaisa. Eventually learning that the King of Antioch has died, Pericles sets sail again for home - but his journey of Homeric proportions has only just begun.