The titular character, Iolanthe, is a fairy who has committed a capital offense by marrying a human; rather than being killed, she was banished from the fairy kingdom, never to see her husband again. Twenty-five years pass and the fairies, deeply missing Iolanthe, convince the Fairy Queen to allow her to return. Iolanthe reveals that she bore a son, Strephon, who is part fairy and part human. Strephon also happens to have fallen in love with the Lord Chancellor’s beautiful ward, Phyllis, who loves him in return but is unaware of his mixed lineage. Strephon enlists his mother and the rest of the fairies to help him win his lover’s hand by convincing the Lord Chancellor and the government to allow them to marry. In the meantime, the fairies all fall in love with members of the House of Peers, and the Fairy Queen finds herself with a political and moral mess on her hands. In true Gilbert and Sullivan fashion, the tangled plot unravels and all ends well.