Helena is the only daughter of a famous French physician. Although a gentlewoman, she is not nobility. For the man she loves, a count named Bertram, her rank is not enough. He rejects her but she follows him to the court of the King of France, who is ailing. Bearing her father's potions, she offers to cure the monarch on a gamble: If he dies, she will submit to execution, but if he lives, she can choose a husband from anyone in his court. She chooses Bertram, who is forced to marry her and does, but he flees immediately after the ceremony to Italy. The play offers side-splitting comedy in the self-serving machinations of Parolles, a disloyal associate of Bertram, and by a clown of Bertram's household. But its moments of levity are interlaced with gut-wrenching pathos, causing it to be labeled one of Shakespeare's "problem plays."