The peasants of a Rhineland village are celebrating the vintage festival. A young nobleman, prince Albrecht, disguised under the name of Loys, pays court to a girl named Giselle, who accepts. But the gamekeeper Hilarion, who suspects Loys’ true identity and is jealous of him, awaits the propitious moment to get his revenge.

Giselle is happy and pays no heed to the advice and warnings of her mother, who puts her on her guard by telling her the story of the Willi, the maidens who died before marriage and who, transformed into spirits, lure the men whom they encounter by night and compel them to dance to death. Meanwhile a procession of nobles who have been hunting arrives at the village, in attendance upon the duke of Courland and his daughter Bathilde, who is engaged to Albrecht.

Giselle confides to the young lady that she has fallen in love. She receives a wedding present, but Hilarion chooses this moment to appear, revealing that Albrecht and Loys are the same person. The prince cannot deny it. Giselle, who feels betrayed in her most cherished and pure sentiment, goes out of her mind. In a wild dance, she kills herself with Albrecht’s sword.