Don Salluste, a Spanish grandee condemned to exile by the Queen for immoral conduct, engages the services of his valet, Ruy Blas, to avenge him for his disgrace and humiliation. Salluste knows of his valet's secret love for the Queen. He undertakes to manipulate and implicate him in a plot destined to provoke her downfall. Salluste orders Ruy Blas to pass himself off as Don Cesar de Bazan and win the queen's love, thus compromising her in the eyes of the King. The naïve Ruy Blas, overwhelmed to be approaching the object of his desire at last, takes his role seriously without realising the danger he incurs for his loved one. But Salluste reappears and reminds Ruy Blas that he is merely a tool. All this is complicated by the return of the real Don Cesar who forces Ruy Blas to reveal his true identity to the Queen. He kills Salluste and with him his guilty intent. Then, in despair, he kills himself at the feet of the woman he loves.
