The late Sir Rowland de Boys had three sons: Oliver, the eldest, hates the youngest, Orlando (“it is the stubbornest young fellow of France”, I.1), whom he has steadily humiliated. Orlando is matched against the usurping Duke Frederick’s deadly wrestler, Charles; the fight, which the youth wins, is watched by Rosalind, the banished Duke’s daughter, and her cousin, Frederick’s daughter Celia. Orlando and Rosalind fall immediately in love; Frederick, jealous of her popularity, banishes her; and in the disguise of a boy (Ganymede) she leaves with Celia (as Ganymede’s sister) and the jester Touchstone, to find her father in the Forest of Arden, where he lives with a company (“my co-mates and brothers in exile”) that includes the melancholy courtier, Jaques.

Orlando and his faithful old Adam have also gone to Arden. The travelers (Act II) arrive severally: Rosalind and Celia overhear the shepherd Silvius declaring his love for Phebe, a scornful shepherdess. Orlando becomes a member of the Duke’s court, and (Act III) hands on the trees his love poems to Rosalind. When he meets her, unknowing, as Ganymede, she promises to cure him of infatuation “if you would but call me Rosalind, and come every day to my cote to woo me”.

Meanwhile Phebe falls in love with “Ganymede”, and Touchstone condescends to the country wench, Audrey. Oliver (Act IV), whom Frederick has summarily banished to find Orlando, arrives in Arden; on hearing how Orlando has rescued his brother from a lioness – and seeing a bloodstained napkin – “Ganymede” faints. Oliver and Celia (Act V) are now in love. Presently all the couples in Arden are united: Rosalind reveals herself to Orlando; and Oliver and Celia, Touchstone and Audrey, and even Silvius and Phebe, are in harmony. Frederick has decided to retire from the world into contemplation; the banished Duke is restored; and Rosalind speaks an Epilogue.

-from The Pocket Companion to Shakespeare’s Plays by J.C. Trewin