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The action of the play takes place in Sicilia and Bohemia.
The main charakters are Leontes, King of Sicilia, Hermione, his wife, Perdita, his daughter, Polixenes, King of Bohemia and Florizel his son.
The two Kings are friends, it seems they are brothers. At the beginning Leontes is visited by Polixenes and he wishes him to stay longer finally Hermonie, Leontes wife, persuades him to remain. That´s why Leontes becomes jealous all at once because he is quite sure that he has an affair with Hermone. So Leontes gives order to Camillo, a sicilian Lord, to murder Polixenes however Camillo warns and helps him to leave the town. Later Hermonie is pregnat and Leontes feels he has been decieved. Consequently Leontes seperates Mamillius, his son, from his wife and sends her into prison.
Some days later, Hermonie gives birth to her baby Paulina. Good friends of Hermonie tries to introduce the baby to the father , Leontes.
Hermonie is full of anger and orders Antigones to abandon the baby in the wilderness. Later Mamillius dies, Hermonie is very accused and she affirms her innocence. Only when Hermonie dies after a breakdown Leontes regrets what he has done and wants to change it. In the same time an old shepherd finds the baby in the wilderness and he rears it up and calls it Perdita.
16 years later, she has become a beautiful girl. Polixenes knows that Floizel the Prince of Bohemia, steals away to an poor shepherd where he meets Perdita. One day Polixenes follows disguises as a shepherd Florizel and after some time he shows his identity. Any contact of the lovers is forbidden and therefor Florizel and Perdita escaping to Sicilia where they come to Leonte`s courtyard on the courtyard is although Polixenes to capture his son. They all come to know that it is true that Perdita is Leontes daughter. Paulina wants to see her mother and they go into a house where is a statue of Hermonie. In this house they are very shocked because the statue looks so alive. It seems that Perdita rises from the death however she only waits for her daughter and lives secretly in Paulinas house. At the end all people are happy.
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