Scene one: Yerma, asleep, hears the voice of her unborn child. Awaking she calls Juan. As he leaves for the fields Yerma reminds him of their two-year childless marriage. Coldly he tells her to be patient; warning her to avoid gossip by staying at home. Alone, Yerma dreams of her child. Maria enters and confides with both joy and fear that she has conceived. Yerma reassures her: “Having children is good, healthy and beautiful . . . without them a woman’s blood turns to poison.” Before she leaves, Maria asks Yerma to make her baby clothes. and she happily agrees. Victor enters asking for Juan. Thinking Yerma makes clothes for her own child he congratulates her. Learning it is for Maria he says Juan should think less of his work. and leaves, urging Yerma to: “Try harder!” Alone Yerma yearns: “When child, when will you come to me?”

Scene two: A year later. Yerma has taken food to her husband in the fields. Returning dutifully home, she meets other women and asks their advice – she is still childless. An older woman who has had fourteen children says: “They came like· water...you take a step and at the end of the street a horse whinnies …” They ask Yerma if her husband pleases her – does she tremble when he comes near? Yerma says no – she has only felt such things dancing with Victor, and when, as a child, he lifted her across a ditch: “But my husband is something else. My father gave him to· me and l took him…” The women smile: “But men must give us pleasure... so runs the world.” Yerma replies: “Your world, not mine … l shall give myself to my husband to have a child – never just for pleasure.” Impatiently the women leave protesting that though they would never jeopardize her honor, she should be less innocent of life. Two girls appear. One has left her baby alone. Yerma, fearing for the child, chides her to hurry home. The second girl says she is glad not to have children. She wants to remain her husband’s sweetheart and be free to adventure outside her house. “Why is everybody stuck inside their house doing what they don’t like to do?” she asks. “We did the same thing as sweethearts that we do now – it is just old people that have these ideas about marriage!” It is her mother who keeps feeding her herbs to conceive a child and later will take her on a pilgrimage to the hermitage where it is said a saint gives children to those who pray. “My mother will pray, not I,” says the girl. Yerma is much interested and learns her mother’s name is Dolores. Alone, Yerma hears the shepherd singing. He enters. She remarks on the happiness and vitality of his song. There is a moment of strong attraction between them. Yerma hears the voice of a child. Juan enters. There is tension and Victor leaves. Juan again warns Yerma not to invite gossip by talking in the streets and sends her home, saying he must work all night in the fields. “You go to bed, and sleep,” says Juan, and Yerma replies: “I’ll sleep!”

Scene one: Women gossip washing laundry at a mountain stream. They tell of Juan bringing his two sisters to live with Yerma; to watch over her. They wonder: does Yerma have another man? Juan’s sisters arrive and changing the subject they sing of the sensual joys of marriage

Scene two: Juan at home berates his sister for allowing Yerma out alone. Yerma enters with water from the fountain. It is now five years and they are still childless.  Juan suggests she bring one of her brother’s children to live with them. “l don’t want the· care of someone else’s children,” she replies. Desperately, Juan begs her to resign herself that they may live in peace. Above all, she must stay home to avoid gossip: “Families have honor,” he says, and goes to eat alone with his sisters. Yerma, singing of her unborn son, sees Maria with her baby and asks to hold it. She soon gives it back saying: “! have not a mother’s hand … l see wheat ripens, the fountains give water ... while in my breast I feel two hammer blows, instead of the mouth of my child … I am part of a wasteland, abandoned by the hand of God … my footsteps sound like the footsteps of a man … l shall end by believing I am my own son” Yerma knows that people gossip that she likes another man. but: “They don’t know that even if I did like another, to a woman of my kind, honor comes first.” Yerma weeps and Maria hurries away. Dolores’ daughter enters. Her mother is waiting to see Yerma. Victor enters and tells Yerma he is going away. Juan enters telling Yerma he has purchased Victor’s sheep. There is a moment of deep, unspoken, feeling between Yerma and Victor, before the two men leave. Yerma stands for a moment in anguish, then goes quickly to visit Dolores. Juan’s sisters discover she has gone.

Scene one: Dolores tells Yerma the prayers and incantations she must make to conceive a child. Yerma wishes she could have the child by herself, since she no longer loves Juan. There is a noise outside and her husband enters with his sisters. He accuses Yerma of dishonoring him. Yerma protests innocence, but Juan castigates her: ”I’d wake’ the whole village to see where the good name of my house has gone – but l must swallow this and keep quiet – because you’re my wife. You deceive me, and since I am a man working in the fields, I’m no match for your cleverness… since the first day of the wedding you have looked at me with two needles, passing nights with your eyes wide open at my side, and filling my pillows with evil sighs … a man would have to be made of iron to live with a woman who wants to stick her fingers in his heart.” Desperately Yerma pleads: “It’s you I look for – don’t put me away – love me!” But Juan draws away: “Let me be – once and for all” Yerma falls to the ground cursing her father “who left me the blood of a hundred sons. Cursed be my blood that searches for them ...it is one thing to wish with one’s head, and another for the body’ My fate is written and l can’t raise my arms against the sea.” She leaves, crying: “Let my mouth be silent, forever!“

Scene two: The Hermitage in the mountains. Some people talk cynically about the childless women who will come to pray for fertility, while young and amorous men join in the pilgrimage. Yerma, with the procession of ·women moves into the chapel to pray. Outside, a male and female mask dance a pagan ritual, singing of the joys of sensual love. Yerma returns. The old woman tells her it is Juan’s fault that she is barren. Yerma must find a new man to conceive. She invites Yerma to visit her virile son, but Yerma, outraged, says such an act would betray her honor, which is sacred. The old woman leaves telling her she is doomed to perpetual barrenness. Juan appears. 0verhearing the conversation, he realizes Yerma has not deceived him – his honor is secure. Passionately he declares that he is glad they have no children. She must never again hope for any. He wants Yerma for himself. As Juan tries to embrace her, Yerma realizes he wants her only to satisfy his sexual appetite: “You want me as you sometimes want to eat a pigeon'” She seizes him blindly and strangles him crying out to the women who surround her: “Barren, barren, and alone … my body dry forever … come not near me, for I have killed my son… I myself have killed my son!”