The action of the poem covers the time from the beginning to the 60s. XIX century and takes place in Norway (in the Gudbranda Valley and surrounding mountains), on the Moroccan coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Sahara desert, in a crazy house in Cairo, on the sea and again in Norway, in the hero’s homeland.

A young country boy, Per Gynt, is fooling around, deceiving Osa's mother. He tells her a story about hunting a nimble deer. The wounded deer hoists with Per, riding his horse, to the top of the ridge, and then jumps from a height into a crystal-clear lake like a mirror, rushing towards its own reflection. Holding his breath, Aose listens. She does not immediately catch on: she knows this story - Per only slightly changed the old tradition, trying it on himself. The torn clothes of his son are explained by another - he had a fight with the blacksmith Aslak. Pera is often bullied by surrounding guys: he loves to fantasize, and in his dreams sees himself as a hero of fairy tales or legends - a prince or king, while others around him consider his stories empty boast and nonsense. Actually, Per is too arrogant! Indeed, he is the son of the captain, even if he was drunk, squandered his fortune and abandoned his family. And one more thing - Per likes girls. On this occasion, the mother complains: that he would not marry Ingrid, the daughter of a wealthy farmer? Then they would have both the land and the estate! But Ingrid looked at Pera. It's a pity! Just in the evening, they are playing her wedding, Ingrid is getting married to Masa Mona.

For Masa Mona? The mattress and the simp? This cannot happen! Per is going to the wedding! Trying to dissuade her son, Osa threatens - she will go with her son and glorify him before all! Ah well! Per, laughing and playfully, puts his mother on the roof of someone else’s house: let him sit here until they take her off, and he will go on a holiday.

At the wedding, an intruder is greeted with hostility. Girls don't go dancing with him. Per immediately distinguishes among them Solveig, the daughter of a peasant sectarian from immigrants. She is so beautiful, clean and modest that even he, the dashing guy, is afraid to approach her. Per invites Solveig several times, but each time receives a refusal. In the end, the girl confesses to him: she is ashamed to go with a tipsy. In addition, she does not want to upset her parents: the strict rules of their religion do not make exceptions for anyone. Per is upset. Using the moment, the guys offer him a drink, then to laugh at him. In addition, Pera angers and enrages the inept groom, who does not know how to treat the bride ... Unexpectedly, even for himself, Per grabs the bride under his arm and, "as a pig," according to one of the guests, takes her to the mountains.

Pera's passionate impulse is short-lived, he almost immediately lets Ingrid go on all four sides: she is far from Solveig! The furious Ingrid leaves, and a raid is organized on Pera. He hides in the depths of the forest, where he is greeted by three shepherdesses, who reject their troll friends for his love. Here in the morning Per meets the Woman in the Green Cloak, the daughter of the King of Dovr - the ruler of the evil spirits living in the forest - trolls, kobolds, goblin and witches. Per wants a Woman, but even more he wants to be a real prince - even a forest one! Conditions Dovrsky grandfather (the so-called forest court kings) sets tough: trolls adhere to “soil” principles, they do not recognize free travel outside the forest and are content only with homework - food, clothing, customs. The princess will be given in marriage to Per, but first he should put on his tail and drink the local honey (liquid droppings). Having bowed, Per agrees to both. Everything in the palace of Dovrsky grandfather looks corny and ugly, but this, as Dovrsky's grandfather explains, is only a defect in the human outlook on life. If, having performed the operation, to distort Peru’s eye, he will also see black instead of white and beautiful instead of the ugly, that is, he will acquire the worldview of a true troll. But Per’s operation, ready for the sake of power and glory, doesn’t do almost anything - he was and will remain a man! The trolls are leaning on him, but when they hear the sounds of the church bell, they are letting go.

Per - fainting between life and death. The Invisible Curve envelops him with fetters and clicks for reckoning with winged demons. Per stumbles and falls, but again one can hear church singing and the ringing of bells. With a cry: "Death to me, women behind him!" - The curve releases Pera.

He is found in the forest by his mother and Solveig. Osa tells his son: for kidnapping Ingrid, he is now outlawed and can only live in the forest. Per is building a hut for himself. Snow had already fallen and the house was almost ready when Solveig resorted to it on skis: she left her strict but beloved parents, deciding to stay with him forever.

Per does not believe his happiness. He leaves the hut for brushwood and unexpectedly meets in the woods a very numb Woman in Green with a freak whom she represents Peru as his son - he, incidentally, does not meet his father very favorably ("I will hit daddy with an ax!"). A troll requires Peer to drive Solveig away! Or maybe they three will heal in his house? Per in despair, he is burdened by a heavy guilt. He is afraid to dirty Solveig with his past and does not want to deceive her. So he must refuse it! Saying goodbye, he leaves the hut supposedly for a minute, but in reality forever.

Peru has no choice but to flee the country, but he does not forget about his mother and visits her. Wasp is sick, a neighbor helps her; simple property in the house is described by the bailiff. Of course, the son is to blame for the unhappiness of the mother, but Osa justifies him, she believes that Per is not bad in herself, the wine ruined him. The old woman feels that she does not have long to live - her feet freeze, the cat scratches the door (a bad omen!). Per sits on the bed and, comforting his mother, tells her a fairy tale chanted. They are both invited to the magical castle of Suria Muria. The crow is already harnessed, they ride through a snowy field, through a forest. Here is the gate! They are met by St. Peter himself, and Osa, as an important lady, is brought coffee with cake. The gate is behind, they are at the castle. Per praises the mother for her cheerful disposition, for patience and care, he did not appreciate them before, so let the owner of the magic castle reward her for kindness! Glancing sideways at Wasp, Per sees her dead. Without waiting for the funeral (according to the law, everyone can kill him outside the forest), he leaves "beyond the sea, the farther, the better."

It takes many years. Peru Guntu under fifty. Well-groomed and prosperous, he receives guests on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. Near the sea stands his yacht under the American flag. The guests of Pera: the businesslike master Cotton, the thoughtfully meaningful von Eberkopf, the bomond Monsieur Ballon and the laconic but ardent Trumpeterstrole (Swede) - extol the owner for hospitality and generosity. How did a man of the people make such a brilliant career! In cautious terms, trying not to offend the liberal-progressive views of the guests, Per Gunt tells them the truth: he speculated in China with church antiques and engaged in the slave trade in the southern states in America. Now he is heading to Greece on a yacht and can offer friends a deal. Excellent! They will gladly help the Greek rebels in their struggle for freedom! Now, here, Günt confirms, he wants them to fan the flame of rebellion as much as possible. The greater will be the demand for weapons. He will sell it to Turkey, and they will share the profit together. The guests are confused. They are ashamed and at the same time sorry for lost profits. Von Eberkopf finds a way out - the guests take the yacht from Gunt and sail away on it. Cursing the failed partners, Per threatens them after - and a miracle! - a yacht loaded with weapons explodes! God preserves Gynt for further accomplishments.

Morning. Gynt is hiding from predatory animals on a palm tree, but here he falls into society ... of monkeys. Having orientated instantly, Per adapts to the laws of the pack. The adventure ends happily. Jumping from a tree, the hero wanders further through the desert, realizing in his imagination a magnificent project of irrigation of the Sahara. Per Gunt will turn the desert into an ideal country - Guntiana, he will settle the Norwegians in it and will encourage their studies in the sciences and arts that will flourish in such a fertile climate. The only thing he lacks now ... is a horse. Surprisingly, Gunt immediately gets it. The horse and precious clothes were hidden behind a dune by thieves, who were frightened off by the guard who had been looking for them.

Having dressed in oriental clothes, Gynt goes further, and in one of the oases the Arabs take him for an important person - as Gynt himself believes, for a prophet. The newfound prophet is seriously interested in the charms of the local guria - Anitra, but she is deceiving him - she does not need a soul (which she requested from the prophet), but Gyunt's jewels. The role of the prophet also failed.

Pera's next stop in Egypt. Looking at the Sphinx and the statue of Memnon, Per imagines himself a famous historian and archaeologist. Mentally, he makes grandiose plans for travels and discoveries, but ... does the face of the Sphinx remind him of someone? Whom? Isn't Dovrsky’s grandfather? Or a mysterious curve?

Per shares his guesses with a certain Begriffenfeld, and he, very interested in the interlocutor, promises to introduce him to his Cairo friends. In a house with barred windows, Begriffenfeld reports in terrible secret: just an hour ago, the Absolute Mind died - they are in a madhouse. Begriffenfeld, his director, introduces Pera to the sick: Gutu is a champion of the revival of the ancient language of the Indian monkeys, Fellah, who considers himself the sacred bull of the ancient Egyptians Apis, and Hussein, who imagined himself to be a pen, who needs to be immediately repaired, which he does by cutting his own throat with a penknife. This whole fantastic scene was well understood by Ibsen's contemporaries, in it, attacks on national Norwegian romanticism are encrypted on “Egyptian” material: Gutu, as suggested, is Ivar Osen, the creator of lansmole, an artificial language composed of peasant dialects (by the way, he reads on it now and writes almost half the country's population), fellah is the Norwegian bond (that is, the peasant), the “sacred cow” and the ideal of the Norwegian romantics, Hussein is the Foreign Minister Manderstrom, who betrayed the ideals of Scandinavism during the Danish-Prussian military conflict in 1864: he replaced the concrete actions of Sweden and Norway in defense of Denmark by writing innumerable notes of protest, for which he was nicknamed Ibsen in a newspaper article “capable pen”. Stunned by the atmosphere of madness and suicide committed before his eyes, Per faints, and the mad director of the yellow house sits astride him and crowns his head with a straw wreath of a fool.

Many more years pass by. The completely gray-haired Per Gynt returns to his homeland. His ship is sinking off the coast of Norway, but Gunt, who is hooked on a boat thrown into the sea, manages to escape. On board the ship, Pera was chased by an Unknown Passenger who vainly begged his body from him “for the purpose of science” - because Per, in his opinion, would certainly die soon. And the same Passenger appears at sea again and clings to an upturned boat; to the direct question whether he is the Devil, the Passenger answers evasively and casuistically with a question to the question, in turn exposing Per as a person who is not too strong-willed.

Per safely gets to his native area. He accidentally ends up in a cemetery, where he hears the priest's laudatory word over the tomb of a peasant - a man who grabbed his finger with his sickle during the war (Per in his youth became an accidental witness to this scene). This man, with his whole life and, mainly, with his tireless work, redeemed his cowardice and earned the respect of society. A reproach is heard in the words of the priest of Peru - after all, he did not create either a family or a house. In his former village at the funeral, Ingrid Per meets a lot of old acquaintances aged beyond recognition. And he himself remains unrecognized, although people remember him - the local police chief, for example, recalling Pere, calls him a poet who believed in a fairy-tale reality he had invented. But Pera immediately recognizes the button-maker in the forest, who has long been looking for him. Gynt’s time on earth has ended, and the Button Button intends to pour his soul into a button right on the spot - after all, Pera’s soul will not go to Paradise or Hell, it is suitable only for re-melting. Pugovich does not consider the villain Per, but he was not a good person either? Most importantly, Per Gynt did not fulfill his mission on earth - he did not become himself (a unique person), he only tried on various averaged-standard roles. However, Per himself knows about this, hasn’t he recently compared himself to a bulb. The bulb also does not have a solid core and consists of only skins. Per was and remains a tumbleweed.

Peer Gynt is really scared. What could be worse than melting the soul - turning it into an absolutely amorphous faceless gray? He asks Pugovichnik for a respite, he will prove to him that there was something solid in his nature too! Button releases Pera. But his meetings with Dovrsky’s grandfather, who had lost his former power, and with Kostiavy (Devil?) Do not give anything definite, and now Gunt needs exactly this - something! Wandering through the forest, Per enters the hut he had once built. On the threshold he is met by Solveig, who is old, but happy from the fact that she saw him again. Only now, Peer Gynt understands that he is saved. Even under the most diverse masks throughout his colorful life, he remained himself - in the hope, faith and love of the woman who was waiting for him.

The button releases Pera with a warning that he will be waiting for him at the next intersection. They will still talk among themselves.