Synopsis

Act 1

The Buryja mill

Dusk in September.
Jenufa is waiting anxiously for Steva to return from the draft board. If he is conscripted she and Steva will not be able to get married, and her pregnancy will be discovered. She could face the rough justice of the village in the form of death by stoning, as well as the damnation of her soul which her religious upbringing makes her fear. Laca, who has loved Jenufa since childhood, jealously watches her. He resents his subservient position in the mill, and Jenufa's love for Steva. The mill girl Jana thanks Jenufa for teaching her how to read. The mill foreman brings the news that Steva has not been recruited after all. Steva arrives drunk and accompanied by a band and the men who have been drafted. They dance and sing with the millworkers but their merrymaking is cut short by the Kostelnicka who sees in Steva a husband as unsuitable as her own was: drunken, spendthrift and violent. Not knowing that Jenufa is pregnant, the Kostelnicka refuses to consent to their marriage unless they delay it for a year, during which Steva is to give up drinking.  Jenufa vainly tries to make Steva realise his obligations. Laca returns to taunt Jenufa and slashes her cheek with his knife.

Act 2

The Kostelnicka's house by the river.
Evening, five months later
Jenufa has told her stepmother about her pregnancy. To save them both from disgrace, the Kostelnicka has hidden her away in her house and told everyone that Jenufa has gone to Vienna. Her baby boy, also called Steva, is now eight days old.

The Kostelnicka drugs Jenufa's drink. While Jenufa sleeps, Steva comes in answer to the Kostelnicka's summons. He agrees to pay for the upkeep of his baby but wants his fatherhood kept secret. He also refuses to marry Jenufa, and announces he is now betrothed to Karolka, the Mayor's daughter. He runs away when he hears Jenufa cry out in a nightmare.

Laca is more sympathetic, and still hopes to marry Jenufa. But he is appalled when the Kostelnicka tells him about the baby. On impulse, the Kostelnicka tells him that it died. Left alone, she decides to save Jenufa and herself from shame by killing the baby.

Jenufa awakes and searches for the baby. She imagines her stepmother has taken little Steva to the mill, and prays to the Virgin to protect him. The Kostelnicka returns and tells Jenufa that she has been in a fever for two days, during which time the baby has died.

Laca returns and Jenufa agrees to marry him if he still wants her. The Kostelnicka blesses the couple and curses Steva, the cause of this misfortune. Suddenly the windows are blown open, and to the Kostelnicka it seems like the voice of death forcing its way in.

Act 3

The Kostelnicka's house
Morning, two months later

On Jenufa's wedding-day, the Kostelnicka is distraught. Jenufa and Laca have invited Steva, Karolka his fiancée and her parents, the Mayor and his wife. The wedding is to be very plain in style, but this disappoints Karolka and her family. Uninvited, some workers from the mill turn up and sing, wishing Jenufa well. As the Kostelnicka is about to bless the couple, shouts are heard. Brewery workers cutting ice on the river have found a dead baby, frozen into the ice. Jenufa knows from the baby's clothes that it is little Steva. The gathering crowd threaten to stone her for murder and are only just restrained by Laca.

They are silenced by the Kostelnicka, who confesses her own guilt. Karolka realises that Steva was the father and refuses to marry him. Laca blames himself. But Jenufa understands why her stepmother murdered the child, and forgives her. The Mayor leads the Kostelnicka away to be tried. Jenufa tells Laca he may go too, but he still loves her and intends to go with her to the trial.