The Story
In the dungeons of the Inquisition, the poet Cervantes is subjectto a mock trial by his fellow prisoners. He defends himself by staging episodes from his unfinished manuscript of Don Quixote, the story ofa delusional country gentleman who imagines himself to be a knightfrom a mediaeval romance. Setting out on a quest with hismanservant-come-squire, Sancho Panza, he mistakes a windmill for agiant, an inn for a mighty castle and a slatternly serving girl namedAldonza for the lady Dulcinea, the object of his courtly devotion.Touched in spite of herself by the sincerity of Quixote's adoration,Aldonza attempts to put his ideals of nobility into practice - only tobe raped by a gang of muleteers. Meanwhile, Quixote's niece,Antonia, has dispatched her fiance, Dr. Carrasco, to bring her errantuncle home. By a trick, he succeeds in restoring Quixote to sanitybut in the process robs him of the will to live. Hastily improvisingan ending to his tale, Cervantes has Aldonza reappear and remind thedying Quixote of the magnificence of his "Impossible Dream"As the jailers arrive to bring the author before the Spanish Inquisition.
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