The author in mid-life crises finds himself lost in a woods. He attempts to find the true path out. He sees a vision of a heavenly mountain and attempts to ascend it, but is blocked by three ferocious animals – a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf.

He becomes discouraged and decides to descend and abandon his climb. On his way down he meets the spirit of Virgil who consoles him and advises him that he will guide him toward that delectable mountain, but to reach it he will have to go another way – through Hell and Purgatory, where another will take Virgil’s place as guide to finish the journey. This other person is Beatrice, who has asked Virgil to undertake this task as Dante’s guide through Hell.

Dante is at first enthusiastic. Beatrice was an early childhood acquaintance with whom Dante had a platonic, chivalric love attachment.

Eventually, Dante with Virgil as his guide enter hell. Where they encounter a variety of people condemned forever: almost all are Italian, Homeric, Virgilian, or mythological characters. Dante is most interested in finding his fellow countrymen(Florentines) – especially his former political enemies. With these he converses and promises to bring news of them back to the real world.

Structurally, hell is a large cone with a left turning spiral descent, with a gradation of severity of evilness from the wide top toward the narrow peak of the cone where Satan resides at the center of the earth.

Dante and Virgil traverse through hell, visit, converse, and philosophize with various condemned souls and exit through the undersurface of hell to the other side of the earth where they gaze again upon the stars.