Get Hamlet straight once, then move.

The play opens with soldiers on the battlements of Elsinore castle reporting that a ghost resembling the recently dead King Hamlet has been walking at night. They bring Prince Hamlet to see it. The ghost pulls Hamlet aside and delivers a bombshell: Claudius, Hamlet's uncle and now king, murdered him by pouring poison into his ear while he slept in his garden. The ghost demands revenge and then disappears at dawn. Hamlet is devastated and furious, but he's also uncertain—he knows ghosts can lie or deceive, and he's not ready to commit murder on a ghost's word alone.

Hamlet decides to fake madness while he figures out his next move. His behavior becomes erratic and cruel, especially toward Ophelia, the young woman he has been courting. Her father Polonius, a long-winded royal advisor, decides Hamlet's madness is caused by lovesickness and reports this theory to Claudius. Claudius isn't convinced. He and Polonius spy on Hamlet repeatedly, trying to understand what he's really thinking. Meanwhile, Hamlet's old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive—sent by Claudius to monitor him—and Hamlet quickly sees through them.

A theater company arrives at Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes the opportunity. He asks them to perform a play that closely mirrors the murder the ghost described, with a king killed by poison poured in his ear. During the performance, Claudius abruptly leaves the room. Hamlet takes this as proof of guilt. He's now certain Claudius is a murderer—but he still doesn't act immediately. He finds Claudius alone and praying, draws his sword, and then sheathes it again, reasoning that killing a man at prayer would send him to heaven rather than to hell.

The delay costs him. Hamlet goes to confront his mother Gertrude in her bedroom. Polonius is hiding behind a curtain to eavesdrop. When Hamlet hears movement, he stabs through the curtain, killing Polonius—the wrong man. Gertrude is horrified. The ghost reappears briefly, visible only to Hamlet, which makes Gertrude think her son has completely lost his mind. Claudius, now frightened of Hamlet, sends him to England accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, carrying sealed letters ordering the English king to execute Hamlet on arrival.

Back in Denmark, Ophelia, destroyed by her father's death and Hamlet's rejection, descends into genuine madness. She wanders the court singing fragmented songs and distributing flowers, then drowns in a stream—whether by accident or by choice is left unclear. Her brother Laertes returns from France, furious and ready to kill whoever is responsible. Claudius channels Laertes's rage toward Hamlet, turning him into a weapon.

Hamlet intercepts the letters being carried to England, rewrites them to order the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead, and escapes back to Denmark with help from pirates. He arrives just as Ophelia is being buried. He and Laertes clash at her graveside, each claiming to have loved her more. The confrontation is broken up, but the hostility between them is set.