In the episode, the alien time traveller the Doctor (David Tennant) takes his new travelling companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) in her first trip in time and space. They arrive in 1599 near the Globe Theatre in Southwark, where they meet the playwright William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is being bewitched by three witch-like Carrionites to rewrite the ending to his play "Love's Labour's Won" so that the performance will create the right words to free the rest of the Carrionite race from imprisonment.