The marriage of Orpheus and Eurydice is coming to an end: Eurydice is dying of boredom at home, while the rather talentless violinist Orpheus is groping his pupils. Eurydice finds interest in the virile Aristeus, who turns out to be Pluto, the ruler of the Underworld. He takes her into his dark realm. Orpheus remains blissfully unaware of his wife's whereabouts. However, he has underestimated public opinion, which steps in and, in the name of civil decorum, demands that Orpheus go to Olympus and assert his claim for the return of his wife before the gods.
When the New Public Opinion also appears and asks what Eurydice has to say about all this, the order in the heavenly realm as well as in the Underworld is thrown into chaos. Old claims of possession enter into a competitive struggle with the new circumstances – a conflict that ultimately escalates in a tumultuous celebration in Pluto's realm, culminating in the famous Hell's Cancan.