Prince Pericles, visiting Antioch, solves King Antiochus's riddle to his daughter's suitors - the answer is that the King has had an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Pericles realizes he must escape to Tyre, and from there he goes to Tarsus to relieve a famine. Pursued by Antiochus's men, his ship is wrecked on the shores of Pentapolis and he marries Thaisa, the daughter of its King. Thaisa gives birth to a daughter, Marina, at sea, and in a great storm Thaisa is thrown overboard in a sea-chest. Coming to land at Ephesus, she believes Pericles is drowned and becomes a priestess of Diana.Pericles arranges for Marina to be brought up by Cleon of Tarsus and his wife Dionyza, and returns to Tyre. Fourteen years go by, and Dionyza, jealous of Marina, is about to have her murdered, when Marina is kidnapped by pirates, who send her to a brothel in Mytilene. Cleon tells Pericles that Marina is dead. Meanwhile, in Mytilene Marina's purity triumphs, startling the governor of the city,