While in Petapolis, Pericles wins the hand of Thaisa, they fall in love and they marry. Hearing news that the people of Tyre want their beloved Prince Pericles back because King Antiochus is dead, Pericles with his pregnant wife Thaisa set sail for Tyre.

On board the ship, Thaisa gives birth to Marina but tragically, Thaisa is believed dead afterward. A sorrowful Pericles seals his wife in a watertight coffin and buries her at sea, but little does he know that the coffin washes upon the shores of Ephesus.

At Ephesus, Thaisa is revived by Cerimon and believing she has lost her husband becomes a priestess in the Temple of Diana.

Meanwhile, Pericles does not bring his daughter back with him to Tyre. Instead he takes Marina to Tarsus for Cleon and his wife to bring up for sixteen years.

Marina has since grown into a beautiful young woman whom is hated by Dionyza because of it. Dioyza wants Marina murdered and tells her servant to do so. Her servant does not succeed, instead Marina is captured by pirates.

Lying, Dionyza's servant says that Marina is dead and a sad Cleon raises a monument for her which her true father, Pericles sees while visiting Tarsus.

Marina in the meantime is sold by the pirates to a brothel in Mitylene but is only there shortly before she is set free by the governor.

Still believing his daughter to be dead, Pericles goes to Mitylene on business but encounters his daughter and the two are together again.

The governor who set Marina free, Lysismachus, asks Marina to marry him and she says yes.

Amidst all of this happiness, Pericles dreams that he should go to Ephesus and he does.