After the Death of the Roman Emperor, his two sons, Saturninus and Bassianus are asking the roman population to vote of which one should be the successor to their father. while the two brothers are petioning to the people, they are suddenly silenced by the Tribune of the People, Marcus Andronicus, who announces that the people of Rome have elected to the throne Titus Andronicus (Marcus’s brother). Titus is a Roman general who has spent the last ten years of his life fighting for Rome and during those war’s lost twenty-one of his sons to Rome ‘s enemies.

Titus Andronicus then enters the room followed by four of his living sons and two in coffins behind him he brings with him the captives Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her three sons, and Aaron the Moore.

Despite Tamora ‘The Queen of the Goths’ pleding for the life of her elder son, a roman tradition for someone who has lost their son in battle is to kill the eldist son of the one who killed their son.

Marcus (Titus’s brother) offers Titus the scepter of Rome on behalf of the Roman people, but Titus refused. Instead, he said that Saturninus should be emperor because he is the eldest son. Saturninus returns the ‘favor’ by taking Lavinia as his empress. Bassianus revolts against this, claiming that Lavinia is engaged to him. So He runs away with her, with the aid of Lavinia’s remaining brothers Lucius, Mutius, Quintus, and Martius. When Mutius confronts with Titus on behalf of his fleeing sister, Titus strikes him down and kills him. It is only after his other sons plead with him that Titus even allows Mutius to be interred in the family tomb.

Humiliated by the loss of Lavinia, Saturninus announces that he will instead take Tamora as empress. The new empress ‘advises’ him to accept the apologies of Titus and his sons, secretly promising Saturninus that she will help him find another day to exact revenge on the Andronici family. At the end of this scene Titus offers to organize a hunt for the Royal couple the next day, and Saturninus accepts.