Jacopo Foscari, illegally returning to Venice from exile, awaits the decision of the Council of Ten on his fate. His wife Lucrezia pleads with the old Doge, learning, however, that the Council has decreed exile. The Doge himself is divided between public duty and family loyalty. In prison Jacopo laments his fate, railing against his enemies. His father, the Doge, comes to bid him farewell and Jacopo Loredano, an enemy of the Foscari, comes to lead Jacopo before the Council, which condemns him, in spite of his pleas and those of his wife and children. At carnival time Jacopo is taken to the barge that will carry him into exile. Another confesses to the murder of which Jacopo was accused, but, as Lucrezia tells her father-in-law, the confession is too late, since Jacopo is now dead. The old man is forced by Loredano to resign his power, to be replaced as Doge.