Courtly allegory about platonic love. Endimion cherishes a pure, high-minded passion for Queen Cynthia (virgin goddess of the Moon) and spurns the more earthy love of her lady-in-waiting Tellus (fertile earth goddess). Piqued, Tellus appeals to an enchantress, who causes Endimion to fall into a sleep that is to last forty years. But his friend Eumenides, travelling far and wide, discovers the spell's antidote to be a kiss from Cynthia. Touched by Endimion's plight, Cynthia wakens him with her chaste lips, restoring his lost youth. Grateful, he swears fidelity to her forever, forcing Tellus to content herself with Corsites, a captain.
In contrast to the courtly love of the main characters, the fop Sir Tophas scorns all love, but he too is promised a wife in the end.