The personification of Michaelmas Term takes off his "country cloak", which is white, and instead puts on his "city cloak", which is black. He learns from his servant that there are several litigants coming from the country with the profits from their harvest intending to file lawsuits. Three other personifications, those of Trinity, Hilary and Easter, bring a poor man into the room; he is made rich, and given the clothes of a rich man as well as the trappings, including his own page. The three other terms tell Michaelmas he should share the wealth from these lawsuits around and he promises that there will be a great deal of money coming from many years' worth of lawsuits.
There is a county by the name of Essex, which is north-east of London, where farmers are reputed to be rather gullible and generally very stupid. Master Easy is one of these people. He has come to London because his father has died recently. He meets with Master Rearage and Master Cockstone, two "gentlemen" of London. They quickly deduce that he is indeed very gullible, and also a poor judge of character. He will be easy to dupe.
The two men then talk about Rearage's romantic pursuit of the daughter of a rich cloth merchant, Master Quomodo. There is now a rival for her affections, a newly-wealthy Scotsman called Andrew Lethe. This has put a spanner in the works as far as Rearage's romantic intentions are concerned, because although the girl's mother prefers him still, Master Quomodo favors the Scot, and has banned Rearage from the family home.
When Quomodo arrives, he, too, realizes what an easy mark Easy is, and instructs his accomplice Shortyard to befriend him, and then con him, making him indebted to Quomodo so that he will have no choice other than giving him his land.
Now Andrew Lethe enters and joins the gathering, inviting them to dinner that evening before they all leave. Lethe ponders his romance with Quomodo's daughter, and realizes that although it is going well, her mother hates him, which he cannot understand. He writes her a letter stating that the only possible explanation for her not wanting him to marry her daughter is that she is in love with him herself, and therefore jealous. He assures her that if he is permitted to marry her daughter, she need not worry, because they can have an affair.
Meanwhile, Shortyard begins their con on Easy, introducing himself as "Blastfield". He says that they have a mutual friend and because of this, Easy won't want for anything whilst he is in London. It will be Shortyard's honor to take care of him. He encourages Easy to drink and gamble and he eventually loses all his money to Lethe. Shortyard sends a servant to borrow money from Quomodo and Easy's gambling is funded for as long as he wants to continue playing.
Lethe has given his mother the job of his "servant" and she takes his letter to Thomasine Quomodo. She is offended by the letter and sends a message back with Mother Gruel that he is not worthy of her daughter's hand in marriage. Quomodo and their daughter, Susan, discuss her suitors and she maintains that she prefers Rearage, but her father finds her preferences completely irrelevant; however, Thomasine also prefers Rearage and makes her opinion known.
When Easy and Shortyard arrive to borrow money, Quomodo tells them his cash is all tied up in other loans that are still unpaid. Easy has no money and is now becoming concerned but Quomodo suggests that he gives him cloth instead of cash. Easy will be able to sell this at any merchant in town. Thomasine watches their conversation from a balcony above them and is appalled at their treatment of Easy. Quomodo has a scrivener draw up an agreement for the loan.
Falselight pretends to be a servant and goes out to find potential buyers for the cloth but returns quickly to say that nobody wants to purchase it. Quomodo suggests a new merchant Master Idem, who might buy, but the snag is that Easy might have to sell the cloth at below market value. Easy, thinking that all he really needs to do is make enough to pay for dinner, suggests eighty pounds, well below the two hundred that the cloth is worth. Falselight then returns in the guise of Master Idem, offers eighty pounds for the cloth, and a deal is struck.
At dinner, Lethe tells the men that he wrote a letter to Thomasine and asks Mother Gruel if there was a message in reply. In front of everyone, she tells him that Thomasine called him a base and proud knave who has no hope of ever marrying her daughter. Everyone leaves in embarrassment.
Assuming his third disguise, Falselight pretends to be a policeman, and along with Shortyard and a Yeoman, arrest Easy for unpaid debts. Either he finds someone who can pay his bill, or he will go to prison. Easy goes to Quomodo's shop with the "sergeant". Easy protests that the debt is not really his, but Quomodo lectures him on the importance of paying his debts. Meanwhile, Shortyard, who has ostensibly been seeking out wealthy and benevolent citizens to help Easy, tells him that he has found citizens to pay the debt. Easy puts his land up as collateral and signs a bond with these "citizens'.
Rearage plans to write to Quomodo and tell him about Lethe's constant womaniziing.
Easy goes back to Quomodo's shop with Shortyard and Falselight, both disguised as "benevolent wealthy citizens". Quomodo says the debt to the citizens will have to be paid by signing over his lands. Quomodo, now an Essex landowner, begins to worry about what will happen to his lands in the event of his death. He hatches a plan to fake his own death and leave all of the lands to his son, Sim. Then he can watch what happens after his "death", and see what people's reactions to it are. After he is pronounced dead - thanks to a falsified death certificate - Shortyard starts plotting to swindle Sim Quomodo out of his inheritance. Thomasine is secretly pleased her husband has passed. She immediately sends her maid to Easy's lodgings with some money and a ring. When Rearage visits, Thomasine admits to him that she was treated terribly in her marriage and so finds it difficult to be upset about Quomodo's death. She also tells him that now he will be able to marry her daughter.
In disguise, Quomodo marvels at the extravagent funeral his wife has organized for him. She has hired mourners, and now he is beginning to worry that he has caused her undue grief. As he listens to the conversations of others in the mourning procession, he discovers that nobody has very many nice things to say about him. He extends his condolences to Sim, but is brushed off, Sim declaring his father to have been a lewd fellow who was not at all honest. He also mentions that he has made Shortyard his rent-gatherer on his new Essex lands. Quomodo is furious and vows to disinherit his ungrateful so. Thomasine is still playing the grieving widow in public, which pleases Quomodo, but when she and Easy are alone later, they declare their love for each other and plan to marry.
Shortyard manages to cheat Sim out of his inheritance. Now Easy and Thomasine are married, Easy accuses Shortyard of swindling him out of his lands, having been told the whole story by Thomasine. He theatens legal action but Shortyard attempts to wriggle out of the situation by telling Easy that he has swindled Sim out of his inheritance with the sole purpose of helping Easy reclaim his land. Easy takes the papers that give him his land back but still vows revenge. He orders police officers to arrest Shortyard and he is taken away.
Quomodo returns but is still under the impression that Thomasine was deeply affected by his death. He does not realize she was not grieving at all and has already remarried. He is still disguised and approaches Thomasine to request payment for his services at the funeral. She obliges and asks him to sign a memorandum that he has been paid. To surprise her, he signs his real name. The memorandum states that Easy no longer owes him any money. When Easy comes into the room, he and Thomasine refer to each other as "husband" and "wife" and Qumodo reveals his true identity. Thomasine is aloof and denies that he is her husband so threatens to bring the matter before a judge.
At the judge's house, Thomasine and Easy talk at length with the judge. Shortyard and Falselight are arrested. Easy tells the judge that Quomodo is a schemer and a con-man. They cannot be sure if he is the real Quomodo, but if he is then he is guilty of an outrageous deception. Quomodo insists that Thomasine is genuinely his wife and furthermore that Shortyard and Falselight are being wrongly arrested. The judge questions Quomodo; is he an infamous con-man? Quomodo claims he is not. Did he cheat Easy out of his land? Quomodo says he did not. The judge declares that if he was really Quomodo then these answers would not be true. He must be whipped because he is a pretender. Qumodo wants to avoid being whipped and admits that he is a conman and that he did cheat Easy out of his lands. The judge then accepts him as the real Qumodo. Quomodo believes he can still get away with Easy's land now that he has re-established his identity. However, Easy produces the memorandum that states he no longer owes Quomodo anything. Shortyard speaks up, telling of how he cheated Sim out of his inheritance, and transferred all of Quomodo's legal documents back to Easy.
It is then revealed that Susan and Rearage have recently been married.
