Giorgetta is on the deck of a barge doing domestic chores, while her husband Michele, the barge-owner, stands silently gazing at the sunset. Giorgetta offers a glass of wine all round; stevedores Luigi (tenor), Tinca (tenor) and Talpa (bass) gladly accept. Giorgetta dances with the stevedores until she realizes that Michele's behavior seems odd. La Frugola (mezzo-soprano) comes in looking for her husband, Talpa. When the men return, having finished their work, Tinca goes off to a tavern to get drunk, unhappy about his unfaithful wife. Luigi sings about the hardships of a stevedore's life, and La Frugola dreams of living in a cottage in the country. Giorgetta, on the other hand, longs for Paris, where she was born. When Luigi and Giorgetta are alone together, he tells her he is in love with her, and he would stab her to the heart than have her be with another man. They agree to meet that night and she will signal him with a lighted match when it is safe to come to the barge.