This play has a very appropriate title, because although there is a good deal of drama and the characters make plenty of fuss (or ado) nothing actually happens.
Two young people, Claudio and Hero, fall in love. Their marriage is thwarted by an enemy, who accuses Hero of infidelity, so that Claudio plans to repudiate her. Meanwhile two friends of the couple, Beatrice and Benedick, who are always quarrelling, are tricked into falling in love by each being told that the other is already in love with him/her. Things come to a head when Claudio publicly humiliates Hero on their wedding day, she appears to die from the shock and Beatrice demands that Benedick prove his love for her by challenging Claudio to a duel.
In the end it becomes clear that nothing has happened – no infidelity, no death, and no duel. Ironically, even by the end, when the two couples are about to be married, they decide to have a dance first; so the play ends with no wedding. It is still "much ado about nothing."
