The action takes place on the island of Lesbos, well known to the Greeks, in the Aegean Sea, and not even on the whole island, but in only one village on its outskirts.

Two shepherds lived there, one goat-guard, another sheep-breeder, one slave, the other free. Once, a goat security guard saw: a goat feeds a thrown child - a boy, and with it a purple diaper, a gold clasp and a knife with an ivory handle. He adopted him and called him Daphnis. A little time passed, and the sheep breeder also saw: his sheep feeds a thrown child - a girl, and with her a bandage sewn in gold, gilt shoes and gold bracelets. He adopted her and called her Chloe. They grew up, he is handsome, she is beauty, he is fifteen, she is thirteen, he was herding her goats, she is her sheep, frolic, friends, “and you could rather see that the sheep and goats are grazed apart than to meet Daphnis separately Chloe. "

It was summer, and trouble happened with Daphnis: he stumbled, fell into a wolf hole and nearly died. Chloe clicked on a neighbor, a young shepherd, and together they pulled Daphnis out of the pit. He was not hurt, but was covered in dirt and earth. Chloe led him to a stream and, while he was bathing, saw how handsome he was and felt something strange in herself: “I am sick, but I do not know what; not wounded, but the heart hurts;

I’m sitting in the shade, and I’m all burning. ” She didn’t know the word “love,” but when the boarish neighbor argued with Daphnis who was prettier, and they decided that Chloe would kiss the one she liked best, then Chloe immediately kissed Daphnis. And after this kiss, Daphnis also felt something strange in himself: “My spirit took hold, my heart wants to pop out, my soul melts, and yet again I want to kiss her: is there really any potion on Chloe lips?” He did not know the word “love” either.

Autumn came, grape holidays arrived, Daphnis and Chloe had fun with everyone, and then an old shepherd approached them. “There was a vision for me,” he said, “Eros the little one appeared to me with a quiver and a bow and said:“ Do you remember how I grazed you with your bride? and now I’m grazing Daphnis and Chloe. ” “And who is Eros?” - teenagers ask. “Eros is the god of love, stronger than Zeus himself; he reigns over the world, over gods, people and cattle;

there is no cure for Eros either in drinking, in food, or in conspiracies, only one means is to kiss, hug and naked, cuddled up, to lie on the ground. ” Thought Daphnis and Chloe and realized that their strange languor - from Eros. Having overcome timidity, they began to kiss each other, and then hug, and then lay naked on the ground, but the languor did not pass, and they did not know what to do next.

Then trouble happened already with Chloe: the young rich loafers from the neighboring city, having quarreled with the villagers, attacked them, stole the herd and stole the beautiful shepherdess with him. Daphnis prayed in despair to the village gods - the nymphs and Pan, and Pan sent his “panic horror” at the captors: he entwined the loot with ivy, ordered the goats to howl like wolves, fired on the ground, and the sound of the sea. The frightened villains immediately returned the prey, the reunited lovers swore allegiance to each other - “I swear by the herd and the goat that nourished me: I will never leave Chloe!” - and the old shepherd played them on pipes and told how once God Pan was in love with a nymph, and she ran away from him and turned into a reed, and then he made such a pipe from reeds with such uneven trunks, because they were uneven love.

Autumn has passed, winter has passed, icy and snowy, a new spring has come, and the love of Daphnis and Chloe continued - all the same innocent and painful. Then the wife of a neighboring landowner, young and crafty, spied on them. She liked Daphnis, she took him to a secluded glade and told him: “I know what you and Chloe lack; if you want to find out, become my student and do whatever I say. ” And when they lay down together, then she and nature herself taught Daphnis everything that was needed. “Just remember,” she said goodbye, “it’s a joy to me, and Chloe will be ashamed, scared, and hurt for the first time, but don’t be afraid, because it’s so natural.” Still, Daphnis was afraid to hurt Chloe, and so their love continued to stretch — in kisses, caresses, hugs, gentle chatter, but nothing more.

The second summer came, and grooms began to get married to Chloe. Daphnis is in grief: he is a slave, and they are free and prosperous. But good rural nymphs came to his aid: in a dream they indicated to the young man where to find a rich treasure. Khloins adoptive parents are glad, Daphnisovs too. And they decided: when in the fall the landowner will go around his estate, ask him to agree to the wedding.

Autumn came over the summer, the landowner appeared, and with him the depraved and cunning took root. He liked the handsome Daphnis, and he begged him from the owner: “Everyone is subjugated to beauty: they even fall in love with a tree, a river and a wild beast! So I love the body of a slave, but the beauty is free! ” Is there really no wedding? Then the old man, the adoptive father of Daphnis, rushed to the owner’s feet and told how he had once found this baby in a rich dress: maybe he is actually free-born and you can’t sell and give him? The landowner looks: “Oh gods, aren't these the things that my wife and I once left with our son, whom we planted so as not to split the inheritance? And now our children have died, we are bitterly repenting, we apologize to you, Daphnis, and we are calling again to our father’s house. ” And he took the young man with him.

Now Daphnis is rich and noble, and Chloe is poor as she was: will the wedding be upset, will the landowner reject such a daughter-in-law? All the same helped out: he was afraid that the owner would not be angry with him because of Daphnis, and therefore he persuaded him not to interfere with the union of lovers. The girl was taken to a manor house, there was a feast, the rich people were at a feast, one of them saw Chloe, saw her baby bandage in her hands and recognized her daughter in her: he had once gone broke and abandoned her from poverty, and now he became rich and regained his child. The wedding is celebrated, all the guests are on it, and then the grooms rejected by Chloe, and even that beauty who once taught Daphnis love. The newlyweds are taken to the bedchamber, “and then Chloe recognized that everything they did in the oak grove was only shepherd’s jokes.”

They live happily ever after, goats and sheep feed their children, and the nymphs, Eros and Pan rejoice, admiring their love and consent.