The Introduction: the Host calls for another tale, the man of law demurs only insofar as he considers the artistry of Chaucer superior. He then bewails the condition of poverty, something which other authors and other social institutions (such as the Franciscan mendicants who take a vow of poverty) celebrate and value.

The Tale:
Part One: A Syrian merchant, on one of his trading expeditions, sees the Roman emperor's daughter Constance (Custance). His glowing report of her beauty makes the Syrian sultan fall in love with her and propose marriage. Her father's condition: the Syrian realm must convert to Christianity. The sultan agrees, but his mother doesn't and plots secretly to eliminate the sultan and his court.
Part Two: The wedding turns into a bloodbath, but Constance escapes alone to a ship and sails for three years before fetching up in Northumberland. King Alla's constable finds her and she wins the constable and his wife's undying affection (and also converts the constable's wife, Hermengyld). A knight takes a liking to Constance and propositions her; when she refuses, he stealthily kills Hermengyld and frames Constance for the deed. When, in a court of law, the lying knight swears his falsehood on a "Briton book of the Evangelists," a hand strikes him so that his eyes burst out and a voice declares his calumny. King Alla and his court convert, and he marries Constance. Alla leaves when Constance is pregnant and, when she gives birth to a son, Alla's mother Donegild conspires to have Alla reject Constance by switching a messenger's letters and impugning Constance's child. Alla doesn't rise to the bait, so Donegild again switches letters and has the constable banish Constance and her child, ostensibly on Alla's orders. Constance and her son leave amid lamentation and are miraculously sustained on their sea voyage.
Part Three: Alla comes home, discovers his mother's deception, and kills her. Constance makes land, but a thief tries to rape her; he falls overboard and she is saved. Meanwhile, a Roman senator has wreaked vengeance on the Syrian court because they had disgraced his emperor's daughter and, while returning to Rome, the Senator runs into Constance, whom he doesn't recognize. She and her son Maurice then live with the Senator's family until, one day, Alla comes to Rome as penance for having killed his mother. The Senator takes Maurice to meet Alla and Alla notices the boy's resemblance to his lost Constance. Back at the Senator's house, Alla and Constance reunite, and then the three of them dine at the Emperor's palace and the Emperor recognizes his lost daughter. Maurice eventually becomes Emperor. Constance and Alla return to Northumberland, but Alla dies soon thereafter and Constance returns to Rome and her father.

The Epilogue:
The host thanks the man of law, then asks the parson for a tale. The parson remarks on the host's swearing; the host accuses the parson of Lollardy, and the shipman steps forward to tell a tale with little Latin.

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