Spots 
Alonso Quijano, an hidalgo from La Mancha, spends his days and nights absorbed in tales of chivalry until his brain dries up. Rechristening himself Don Quijote, he polishes his ancestors' rusted armor, names his gaunt horse Rocinante, and dedicates his exploits to Aldonza Lorenzo, whom he elevates to the noble lady Dulcinea del Toboso.
Don Quijote sets out at dawn on his first sally, consumed by worry that he has not been officially dubbed a knight. Arriving at a dusty inn, he perceives its modest structure as a grand fortress and greets two working women at the doorway as highborn maidens.
The practical innkeeper realizes Quijote's madness and agrees to perform a knighting ceremony to speed his departure. After Quijote spends the night guarding his armor beside a water trough and attacks two muleteers who touch it, the innkeeper quickly dabs him with a ledger book and dubs him a knight.
Returning home for supplies, Quijote interrupts a farmer beating a young servant named Andrés over lost sheep and orders the master to pay the boy. Once Quijote departs satisfied with his noble deed, the farmer ties Andrés back to the tree and beats him far more severely. Shortly after, Quijote demands Toledo merchants praise Dulcinea's beauty and ends up battered by a mule driver.
A local peasant named Pedro Alonso discovers the severely beaten Quijote lying by the road reciting romance verses and carries him home under cover of darkness. The knight's niece, housekeeper, curate Pero Pérez, and barber Master Nicholas gather to treat his injuries and diagnose the source of his madness.
The curate and barber conduct a strict audit of Quijote's extensive library to burn the books responsible for his insanity. While they condemn dozens of sensational romances to the bonfire in the courtyard, they spare select masterworks including Amadís de Gaula for their literary merit.
After walling up the library door and convincing Quijote that an enchanter stole his books, the household watches him recruit a simple farmer named Sancho Panza as his squire. Sancho agrees to leave his family after Quijote promises him governorship of a future conquered island.
Spotting thirty wind-powered grain mills across the plain of Montiel, Quijote insists they are brutal giants and charges at them full tilt. His lance shatters against a sails' rotation, sweeping knight and horse into the dirt before he blames an enchanter for transforming the giants into mills.
Action breaks off mid-combat until the text finds an Arabic manuscript by Cide Hamete Benengeli in Toledo's silk market and hires a bilingual Moor to translate it. The record resumes with the fierce duel between Quijote and the Biscayan squire, which ends with Quijote striking down his rival.
Following his victory, Quijote refuses medical care beyond promising to brew the magical Balsam of Fierabras to heal all wounds. Sancho worries about food and safety while Quijote insists true knights-errant sustain themselves on memory, acorns, and field herbs rather than luxury.
Sharing a meal of dried goat meat and acorns with friendly goatherds, Quijote delivers a poetic discourse on the Golden Age. He idealizes an era when humanity lived in peace, property did not exist, and romance required no deceit or protection.
A young shepherd arrives at the camp bringing news that Grisóstomo, a wealthy student who turned shepherd out of love, has died of a broken heart. The goatherds prepare to attend his funeral while discussing his relentless obsession with the beautiful and independent shepherdess Marcela.
En route to Grisóstomo's burial, Quijote converses with a traveler named Vivaldo about the duties of knighthood. Quijote defends his complete devotion to Dulcinea by arguing that every knight must place his lady above divine thoughts during battle.
At Grisóstomo's burial, Marcela appears atop a rock to defend herself against accusations of cruelty. She argues that her beauty does not obligate her to love anyone in return and asserts her absolute right to live unbothered in the countryside.
Rocinante wanders toward a group of Galician carriers' mares, prompting the angry muleteers to beat the horse with staves. Quijote and Sancho rush to defend Rocinante but are quickly overwhelmed and left badly bruised on the stony ground.
Resting at another inn, Quijote mistakenly believes the innkeeper's hunchbacked maid Maritornes is a smitten princess entering his bed chamber. When a carrier waiting for Maritornes intervenes, a midnight brawl erupts in the dark involving the innkeeper, Sancho, and an officer of the Holy Brotherhood.
Quijote brews his foul concoction of oil, wine, salt, and rosemary, drinking it to relieve his pain while Sancho suffers severe stomach agony from the same potion. Quijote then refuses to pay for his inn stay, leaving Sancho behind to be tossed in a blanket by amused travelers.
Seeing two large clouds of dust on the road, Quijote convinces Sancho that two legendary kings are leading massive armies into battle. Quijote charges into the fray to assist the underdog side, spearing sheep until enraged shepherds knock out several of his teeth with sling stones.
Encountering a night procession of torch-bearing priests carrying a coffin, Quijote attacks them thinking they are evil captors transporting a wounded knight. After breaking a priest's leg and learning the truth, Sancho dubs Quijote the Knight of the Sorrowful Face.
Standing in pitch darkness near a rushing river, Quijote and Sancho spend the night trembling at rhythmic thumping and metallic clanging noises. At dawn, they discover the terrifying sound came from six fulling-mill hammers processing cloth, prompting Sancho's uncontrollable laughter.
Spotting a traveling barber wearing a shiny brass basin on his head to keep off the rain, Quijote declares it to be the mythical Helmet of Mambrino. He attacks the barber, who flees and leaves behind the basin, which Quijote proudly wears despite its obvious shape.
Quijote encounters a chain gang of galley slaves guarded by armed officers and interviews convicts like Ginés de Pasamonte about their crimes. Believing no man should be forced against his will, Quijote attacks the guards and frees the convicts, who repay his mercy by pelting him with stones.
Retreating into the rugged peaks of the Sierra Morena to escape the Holy Brotherhood, Sancho suffers the theft of his donkey by Ginés de Pasamonte. Exploring the mountains, Quijote and Sancho find an abandoned suitcase containing money and a notebook of tragic love poems.
Quijote encounters Cardenio, the ragged lover living in the mountains, who wanders semi-clothed in grief over losing his love Luscinda to Don Fernando. As Cardenio narrates his tale, an argument erupts over a minor detail regarding chivalric books, escalating into a violent brawl between the two madmen.
A noble country gentleman loses his sanity to chivalric romances and sets out to revive knighthood in Spain.