Lucius, the narrator, is journeying to Thessaly. On his way he meets a man named Aristomenes, who tells him a story of Socrates, a friend of his whom he encountered along the road. Socrates had fallen in with a witch, who later killed him and frightened Aristomenes. Lucius believes the man's story and is intrigued.In Thessaly he stays with Milo and his wife, Pamphile, a notorious witch. Lucius encounters his aunt, Byrrhena, who warns him of Pamphile. While in town Lucius is also the centerpiece of the festival of Laughter when, drunkenly, he stabs three wineskins thinking they are robbers and is taken to a fake trial.Lucius begins to sleep with the maid, Photis. He begs her to let him watch Pamphile do magic, and Photis grudgingly agrees. They watch Pamphile turn into a bird, and after she leaves, Lucius clamors for the ointment she used. Photis accidentally gives him the wrong material, and he turns into an ass. He is terrified and angry, and Photis tells him the only way he can turn human again is by eating roses.Milo's house is robbed by a group of bandits, who take Lucius with him. He is beaten up and dragged to exhaustion. In the bandits' cave they bring in a young woman whom they'd kidnapped from a neighboring town for ransom. The old woman who tends them tells the girl the story of Cupid and Psyche.In this tale, Psyche is a beautiful mortal woman. She is isolated from her family when a prophecy says she will marry a winged monster. The wind Zephyr takes her from the top of a mountain into a valley and a splendid home, where her new husbands comes to her. It is Cupid, although he is invisible and does not reveal his true identity to her. He falls in love with her even though his mother Venus is deathly jealous of the girl's beauty, and Psyche falls in love with him too. He warns her of her cruel and evil sisters, but she is too curious and easily swayed that she disobeys his commands and eventually severs the ties between them. He leaves her and she despairs, and seeks revenge on her sisters. She then tries to find Cupid and eventually decides to go to Venus to grovel before her. Venus loathes the girl and gives her impossible tasks to perform. Psyche receives help for all the tasks, including Cupid on the last one, as he decides he still loves her. Finally Jupiter intervenes and says Venus must be okay with her son's wife. He makes Psyche a god, and she and Cupid have a daughter.