After the Knight's story, the Host calls upon the Monk to tell a story that will rival the Knight's tale for nobility of purpose. But the Miller, who is very drunk, announces that he will tell a story about a carpenter. The Reeve, Oswald, objects because he was once a carpenter. Chaucer then warns the reader that this tale might be a bit vulgar, but he must tell all the stories because a prize is at stake. Thus, the Miller begins his tale.
John, an old and very jealous carpenter who is married to an 18-year-old girl named Alison, rents a room to a young astrology student named Nicholas, who can supposedly forecast the likelihood of rain showers or drought. Nicholas soon falls in love with Alison and one day grasps her around the groins and cries, "Love me all-at-once or I shall die." At first Alison resists, but the clerk soon overcomes her resistance, and together they conceive a plan whereby they will play a trick on the jealous husband.
Alison also has another admirer — Absalon, an effeminate incense swinger at the church. Very dainty and fastidious, Absalon is, in fact, so fastidious that he cannot tolerate people who expel gas in public. Although Absalon demonstrates his feelings for Alison by serenading her outside her bedroom window, she finds him a nuisance and is interested only in Nicholas, who conceives an elaborate plan to get John out of the house for the night.
