The play is set in the kitchen of a count’s manor in the Swedish countryside. It is midsummer eve. The cook, Kristine, is frying something on the stove when Jean, the count’s valet, enters. Jean tells Kristine about the odd and erratic behavior that the count’s daughter, Miss Julie, has been exhibiting at the midsummer eve barn dance, where Miss Julie danced with the gamekeeper and was even trying to dance with Jean. Kristine agrees that Miss Julie has been acting unusually ever since her engagement was broken off two weeks ago. She and Jean talk about the strange incident that led to the end of Julie’s engagement—apparently Julie was “training” (77) her fiancé by making him jump over a riding crop when he finally lost his patience and stormed off. They speculate that Julie must be too embarrassed about the broken engagement to face her aristocratic family and has therefore decided to spend midsummer eve at the manor with the servants.

Jean and Kristine—who are ostensibly engaged—flirt while Jean helps himself to a bottle of the count’s wine. Jean asks Kristine what she is cooking and Kristine explains that Julie has asked her to prepare a concoction to induce abortion in her dog Diana, who was impregnated by a servant’s dog.