Giovanni Guasconti- A young man from Napels that moved to Padua to attend the university. He fell in love with Beatrice and became the subject in one of Dr. Rappaccini’s experiments.

Beatrice Rappaccini- The lovely daughter of Dr. Rappaccini who was fed from birth with poisons to make even her touch deadly. She fell in love with Giovanni and was ultimately "poisoned" by a toxin antidote.

Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini- The botanical genius who made the purple flowers and many other poisonous plants. He found a way to turn his daughter into a living, breathing toxin.

Professor Pietro Baglioni- A friend of Giovanni’s father and professional rival of Dr. Rappaccini. He interpreted Rappaccini’s intentions and tried to warn his young friend of them.

Dame Lisabetta- Helped Giovanni get settled into his apartment and showed him the private entrance into the garden.

Purple-flower bearing shrub- The primary donator of poison to both Dr. Rappaccini and Beatrice.

This novella by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a brilliant love-story and tragedy. The main character, Giovanni Guasconti, moved to Padua to attend the university there. He had very little money to his name and decided to live in a dismal apartment in an old building there in the city. Despite his dislike for Padua in comparison with his southern home of Naples, he took some comfort in the fact that his window was the only one in the building that overlooked an ancient garden. The garden was home to the greatest variety of plants of incredible beauty. Among them was one large purple blooming shrub that made its home in the ruins of a fountain located in the center of the garden. Giovanni spent much of his time looking down on the garden from his window.

Once, while looking down on the garden, he heard a rustle of leaves from the entrance. He saw an old man dressed in black tending the plants that abounded in the courtyard. Giovanni observed that the gardener, Dr. Rappaccini avoided getting too close to the flowers or inhaling their scents. When the old man came to the large purple-flowered plant in the fountain, he hesitated to touch it, even though he was armored with thick gloves and a mask over his face. Instead, he called out, "Beatrice! Beatrice!" The name summoned a young woman of the likes Giovanni had never seen. She seemed to glow with a light of her own and her beauty left Giovanni dumbfounded. The old man told Beatrice to prune the purple plant because touching it might mean death for him. She did so gladly, embracing and holding the plant, all the while calling it "sister" and referring to its perfume as a breath of life. Then, abruptly, Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini and his beautiful daughter strolled out of the garden.

The next day, Giovanni talked with Professor Pietro Baglioni, a friend of his father, about Dr. Rappaccini. The professor told Giovanni about Rappaccini’s flirtation with the genetically altered plants and the deadly poisons that they had produced. He also told of Rappaccini’s reputation as a man of pure science who would sacrifice anything, including an innocent’s life, for an experiment. (Unknown to Giovanni, Professor Baglioni and Dr. Rappaccini had, for many years, nursed a bitter professional rivalry. Thus, the professor’s words were tainted slightly with accustomed bitterness.) Baglioni also discussed the issue of Beatrice. He said that she was already an expert in botany with a level of expertise equal to that of her father.

The next time Giovanni saw Beatrice, he watched her again carelessly inhale the scent of these flowers that the scientific community considered to be so poisonous. Giovanni saw her breathe on a fly and kill it, as well as witnessing the death of a lizard by a drop of the poison from the stem of the purple blossom which she wore at her bosom. He had a brief conversation with her and gave her a bouquet of flowers which withered in her hand.

Baglioni warned Giovanni of a possible plot by Rappaccini to use him in an experiment. Giovanni shrugged him off and found out about a secret entrance to the garden from an old woman named Lisabetta. He went to the garden and met Beatrice face-to-face. They walked and talked for a while and Giovanni fell hopelessly in love with her, despite fact that the things that he had seen terrified him. He attempted to pluck a flower from the shrub that grew in the fountain, but Beatrice pulled him back insisting that it would kill him. She then ran out of the garden. The next morning, his hand burned where she had touched him. Giovanni found that Rappaccini had been watching them.

Giovanni began to eat and sleep his love for Beatrice. He visited her frequently and they often spoke of their love for each other, though they never even so much as held hands. From time to time, she still scared him by shrinking away if he attempted to touch her.

Again Baglioni tried to sway Giovanni away from the garden and Beatrice. He told the youth of an Indian girl who had been fed with poison since her birth so that she might live and breathe poison. He told Giovanni to give a poison antidote to Beatrice so that she could live as normal. Giovanni began to notice in himself some of the characteristics of Beatrice. His breath was deadly and his touch poisonous. He became enraged and ran down to the garden at the appointed time that he was to meet Beatrice. He met his love and cursed her monstrous form for turning him into her. Beatrice denied having a knowing part in her father’s scheme. Rappaccini was extremely pleased by these occurrences and claimed that the two youths could now live together in harmony. Giovanni, apologizing, offered that he and Beatrice both take the antidote. She agreed, but demanded to go first. The antidote killed her almost instantly. From Giovanni’s window, Baglioni yelled down to his nemesis Rappaccini, "Rappaccini! Rappaccini! and is this the upshot of your experiment!"