The Rivals is a comedy of manners,  set in Bath in 1795.

Lydia Languish, whose view on life is shaped entirely by the romantic novels she reads, has fallen in love with a penniless soldier, Ensign Beverley.

But Beverley is in fact Captain Jack Absolute, the son of a baronet who has disguised himself to fulfil Lydia's desires for an impoverished romantic hero.

Enraged at the attachment, Lydia's aunt, the "queen of the dictionary", Mrs Malaprop, has arranged a match between her niece and the son of Sir Antony Absolute - Captain Jack Absolute. Jack is thus his own rival.

Lydia's other suitors are a country bumpkin, Bob Acres, who has come to Bath to learn sophisticated ways, and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, a belligerent Irishman. Sir Lucius believes himself to be wooing Lydia by letter; in fact, the woman writing to him under the name of "Delia" is the lovelorn Mrs Malaprop!