- High up in her tower, Elaine of Astolat guards Lancelot’s shield, which she keeps in a silken bag she has embroidered for it. She fantasizes about the battles that led to every dint and ding on the shield.
- Lancelot left his shield with Elaine before he went to compete in the great joust for the grand prize of a diamond.
- Once, in a mossy crag, Arthur found an ancient crown on the bleached-out bones of a fallen king. He decreed a series of nine jousts to distribute the nine diamonds from the crown.
- The first eight diamonds have been won by Lancelot. Now he plans to joust for the ninth, largest diamond and present them all to Guinevere at once.
- Before the ninth joust, Guinevere declares herself too sick to attend. Lancelot volunteers to stay behind in Camelot with her, but Guinevere ain't havin' it.
- What gives? When Lancelot questions whether Guinevere now wishes to be true to her husband, Guinevere responds that she wants a lover as perfect and pure as Arthur is.
- Guinevere explains that she fears Lancelot’s decision to stay behind with her will set tongues wagging. And we know what gossip in Camelot is like.
- She counsels him to attend the tournament in disguise and later tell Arthur that he wished to test his mettle as an unknown knight rather than one already feared.
- On his way to the tournament, Lancelot seeks lodging in the Castle Astolat, where he is welcomed by the lord, his two sons, Lavaine and Torre, and his daughter, Elaine.
- Torre, who has been wounded and will not be jousting in the tournament, agrees to lend his shield to Lancelot to help him disguise himself. Lavaine offers to accompany him.
- The moment Elaine dares to look at Lancelot, she falls in love with him. Dude's got game.
- That night, Lancelot speaks of his role in Arthur’s battles against the heathens, and of what a great and brave king he is.
- Elaine thinks Lancelot seems kind of sad, even though he's being cheerful and courteous. She wonders if the cheer and courtesy are for her. Does he love her?
- The next morning Elaine asks Lancelot to wear her favor the tournament. Although he has never worn a maiden’s favor before, he agrees in order to enhance in his disguise.
- He asks Elaine to guard his shield for him.
- On the way to the tournament, Lancelot reveals his true identity to Lavaine, who hero-worships the our Lance on the spot.
- At the tournament, Lancelot’s kinsmen are angry that the unknown knight seems just as good as Lancelot. They set upon him, wounding him with a spear.
- Lancelot wins the tournament but rides away with Lavaine before he can receive the diamond, calling his wound his only prize.
- Lavaine and Lancelot take shelter in a cave near a poplar grove not far from Camelot, where a hermit tends to Lancelot’s wound.
- Meanwhile, back at the tournament, Arthur entrusts Gawain with the diamond and orders him to find the knight who won it and give it to him.
- When Arthur returns to Camelot, Guinevere reveals Lancelot’s ruse.
- On learning from Arthur that Lancelot wore another woman’s favor, Guinevere privately flies into a rage.
- Gawain arrives in Ascolat and becomes so enchanted with Elaine that he forgets about his quest to find the unknown knight.
- Finally, Elaine offers to show him the knight’s shield, whereupon he and she both learn that the unknown knight is Lancelot.
- Elaine reveals to Gawain that she is in love with Lancelot. Upon learning this, Gawain leaves the diamond with her to give to him.
- Once Gawain arrives in Camelot, he spreads the rumor of Elaine’s love for Lancelot, which quickly develops into a rumor that their love is mutual, which infuriates Guinevere.
- Elaine and Torre ride in search of Lancelot and Lavaine. They travel to Camelot, where they meet Lavaine outside the city walls. He takes them to Lancelot.
- Elaine gives Lancelot the diamond. From her blush, Lancelot realizes she is in love with him. Awkward.
- See, because of his devotion to Guinevere, he cannot return her love.
- Still, Elaine nurses Lancelot back to health. His coolness toward her convinces her that he does not love her, and she begins to think she may die of unrequited love.
- When they return to Astolat, Lancelot offers to give Elaine any gift she desires. She asks him to love and marry her.
- When Lancelot responds that he cannot, Elaine asks him to make her his lover. He refuses, citing his respect for her father and brothers.
- Lancelot tells Elaine that her love is just a passing fancy of youth. He offers to give her lands and wealth to support any marriage she later chooses to make, but she refuses.
- The Lord of Ascolat asks Lancelot to rebuff Elaine, hoping the snub will help cure her love bug. So when Lancelot rides back to Camelot, he fails to wish Elaine farewell.
- Elaine sits alone in her tower, where she sees visions of Lancelot and sings a song about the bitterness of love and the sweetness of death.
- When her father and brothers visit her, Elaine recalls a time when Torre and Lavaine rowed her up the river toward Camelot but refused to take her all the way.
- Now, she says, she wishes to follow the river all the way to Camelot.
- Trying to cool her love-longing, her father tells Elaine about Lancelot and Guinevere’s adulterous affair. Elaine refuses to believe it, calling it idle slander.
- Elaine asks for a priest so she can make a confession.
- She knows she will soon die of lovesickness, so she dictates a letter to Lavaine, instructing him to place it in her hands after death.
- She instructs her father and brothers to lay her on a funeral barge and send it to Camelot after she dies, and they agree.
- After her death, the three men follow Elaine’s instructions: they lay her out on a funeral barge with her letter in one hand and a lily in the other, then send her down the river.
- In Camelot, Lancelot tries to give his nine diamonds to Guinevere. She rejects them, thinking that he has been unfaithful to her with Elaine.
- She throws the diamonds out the window, where they sink in the river just next to Elaine’s passing funeral barge.
- Everyone in Arthur’s court gathers to wonder at the beautiful maiden in the boat.
- Arthur reads Elaine’s letter aloud. It reveals her unrequited love for Lancelot as the cause of her death, asks for pity from the queen and her ladies, and begs Lancelot to pray for her soul.
- Lancelot explains what happened with Elaine, protesting that he did all he could for her but that he was not able to love her as she loved him.
- Arthur decrees a splendid burial for Elaine, with the story of her love and death, her image, and Lancelot’s shield to be wrought on her tomb.
- In private, the queen asks for Lancelot’s forgiveness, citing the jealousy of love as her excuse.
- Arthur tells Lancelot he wishes he could have loved Elaine, who seemed to have been made just for him.
- Lancelot responds that free love cannot be forced or bound. Still, Arthur can't understand why Elaine failed to attach Lancelot, a man he believes unbound to another. Little does he know, right?
- After his conversation with Arthur, Lancelot realizes that Elaine loved him more truly than Guinevere.
- He begins to think that Guinevere’s concern for her reputation is more about pride, not love.
- He wishes to be free of his bond to Guinevere, since it shames him and makes him a bad example to other knights.