Like every morning, William Tell has breakfast with his wife Hedwig and their son Walter in the poor kitchen. Tell takes Walter to the mountains, where he abuses him behind a rock. Vogt Gessler, who happens to be following the action, tries to rescue Walter from the clutches of his father. Wilhelm Tell, however, succeeds in slaying Gessler and goes with his family to the castle of Gessler to celebrate the murder properly. Walter, in which a new consciousness awakens, shoots his father.