After taking over the rule of England from his former predecessor Richard II, King Henry IV attempts to deal with the problems within his new kingdom while desiring to join in the rank of the armies going to the Holy Land. The king's son, Hal is a deviant child that spends more time in taverns and with prostitutes which makes the new king ill as he tries to bring in his son and prepare him for the throne. As the second part of the play comes around, the Prince of Wales, Hal, starts to turn around and focuses on his sick father and tries to separate his life from his former shady lifestyle that his friends keep trying to bring him back into.