Giovanni Guasconti, a young man from the south of Italy, travels to Padua to study at the university there. He takes lodgings in a house from whose window he can see into the next-door garden, where he sees an emaciated and sickly-looking man, whom his landlady informs him is Giacomo Rappaccini, a doctor and scientist. Rappaccini grows unusual plants, from which he makes numerous medicines.
Giovanni sees Rappaccini call his beautiful daughter, Beatrice, out into the garden to assist him, and Giovanni falls in love with her instantly. He sees Rappaccini, who has been handling many of the plants very carefully, ask his daughter to take care of one which he will not handle himself.