Act I

The story begins with a musical shudder, as it is a very cold Christmas Eve in an unheated garret in Paris. This is the squalid home of four male roommates, Rodolfo, Marcello, Schaunard, and Colline. Each of them pretends to be something he is not, respectively: poet, painter, musician, philosopher.

Marcello is attempting a new painting, but his hands are too cold to hold the brush. Rodolfo is gazing over the rooftops, looking for inspiration to write, but can only see other chimneys warmer than theirs. They look around for something to burn and decide on Rodolfo’s unfinished play.

Colline enters and briefly warms himself on the quickly-burning play, and all three denounce the author for writing such an inconsequential work. Schaunard enters, laden with goodies purchased from the proceeds he made by playing for an Englishman and his dying parrot. Schaunard invites them all to Café Momus. Rodolfo stays behind to write.

There is a timid knock on the door from a young girl who lives in the building. The girl, weak from exhaustion and hunger, faints. Rodolfo revives her with a little water and relights her candle. She thanks him and quickly leaves only to re-enter, for she has dropped the key to her apartment. Rodolfo helps her search for the key and contrives a way to touch her cold hands.

The feeling of the girl’s hand launches Rodolfo into an introduction of himself and into the first real poetry of his life. She answers his introduction with her own, saying that she is called Mimì. She apologizes for taking too much of Rodolfo’s time.

Moonlight floods the garret and the night becomes enchanted with the new love of Rodolfo and Mimì, who decide to join the others at Café Momus.

Act II

Moments later we find ourselves on a bustling street outside the packed Café Momus. Schaunard tries out a horn and declares that its “D” is out of tune. Colline buys a tattered coat that he likes.

Rodolfo introduces Mimì to the other bohemians, remarking that while he is trying to be a poet, Mimì is actually poetry. Schaunard and Colline exchange quips about her in Latin.

Parpignol, a toy seller, arrives to the delight of everyone. The bohemians, seated at last outside Café Momus, order a lavish dinner they know they cannot afford. As they toast, the flamboyant Musetta, Marcello’s sometime girlfriend, arrives on the arm of a rich elderly suitor, Alcindoro.

Musetta decides to make Marcello jealous, so she silences the entire café to sing a captivating waltz tune about how men look at her head to toe (“da capo e piè”) whenever she walks through the Latin Quarter. Musetta’s friends, new and old, admire her as she fakes an injury and demands new shoes in order to momentarily get rid of Alcindoro, giving her time to passionately make up with Marcello, who praises their youthful happiness. A marching band arrives and Musetta contrives a way to leave Alcindoro with their hefty bill.Moments later we find ourselves on a bustling street outside the packed Café Momus. Schaunard tries out a horn and declares that its “D” is out of tune. Colline buys a tattered coat that he likes.

Rodolfo introduces Mimì to the other bohemians, remarking that while he is trying to be a poet, Mimì is actually poetry. Schaunard and Colline exchange quips about her in Latin.

Act 3

It is a bitterly cold and snowy morning a few months later at the Barrier d’enfer, one of the tollgates of old Paris in Montparnasse, where Marcello and Musetta have found temporary lodgings in an inn.

Mimì arrives, very sick, and asks to see Marcello. She confesses that she knows Rodolfo loves her, but he cannot control his jealousies of other men, all of which are unfounded. Marcello says that Rodolfo is inside, having arrived the night before. Hearing Rodolfo awaken, Mimì hides as he comes out of the inn.

Rodolfo claims to Marcello that Mimì always has her eye on other men, which Marcello does not believe, thinking Rodolfo is making excuses. Indeed he is. Rodolfo confesses his true reason for leaving Mimì, something he has been unable to face: Mimì’s illness is incurable. Marcello is unable to keep Mimì from overhearing what she did not yet know: that she is mortally ill.

Mimì asks Rodolfo to leave what few belongings she has with the porter of his house, but to keep the pink bonnet as a souvenir of their love. She says goodbye, and asks that they part without rancor. They sing of the melancholy of parting in wintertime as Mimì recalls her beloved companionship of the sun in spring.

Marcello and Musetta have a fight about her flirtations with others. Rodolfo and Mimì vow to stay together until the flowers next bloom as Mimì sadly wishes that winter would never end, hoping to stave off the moment of their springtime parting.

Act 4

It is several months later, in the heat of summer. Rodolfo and Marcello realize what they have lost by being so capricious with their affections.

Schaunard and Colline arrive with meager offerings that the four men all pretend are gifts brought to a royal imaginary ball. At the height of their dancing and pretend swordfighting Musetta bursts in breathless, having brought the mortally ill Mimì—whose dying wish is to see Rodolfo one more time. Each of the bohemians, slowly coming to terms with the reality in front of them, tries to think of something they each can do to make Mimì’s passing easier. They all depart.

Mimì and Rodolfo recall their first meeting on Christmas Eve and the happiness they once felt when they each looked for her key and he first took her chilled hand. Mimì has a coughing fit that frightens Rodolfo. Marcello returns with medicine and Musetta with the muff Mimì has long wanted for her always-cold hands. Musetta lets Mimì think the muff is a gift from Rodolfo.

Marcello says the doctor will soon come, and Musetta mixes the medicine. Schaunard is the first to notice that Mimì has died. Colline returns and, having noticed Schaunard’s distress, gets Marcello’s attention. Rodolfo realizes the awful truth of the death of his beloved Mimì, whose name he cries out.