Don Quixote suspects no trick about the head, and he is satisfied that Dulcinea will be disenchanted. Sancho, while he hated being governor, desires to give orders again.
Don Quixote visits the galleys, which give him a proper reception. They lay out a feast of dainty cakes. Some men seize Sancho and twirl him about, dazing him. Quixote asks if this is the customary welcome and vows he will not be treated in such a manner.
The boat sets sail. They don't get to converse long when another ship is sighted. They go after it, determined that the other boat will not escape. The Turks, when they saw they could not escape, fire and kill two soldiers. However, they are finally captured and brought to shore with the booty of their raids.
The leader of the Turks seems to be a Spanish renegade. The captain plans to hang all the men. The viceroy comes up and questions the prisoner, who claims he is not a Turk, Moor, or renegade. The prisoner says she is a Christian woman, and asks that her execution be halted until the circumstances of her life are heard.
When the king ordered that all Moors be forced to leave the country, this woman was forced to go with her two uncles--despite having been born to Christian parents and brought up Catholic. A man loved her, and he accompanied her when she was banished. This Don Gregario befriended her uncles. Her father left a hidden treasure, but ordered her not to touch it.
Her beauty caused her to be summoned by the Turkish king. He also heard of the beauty of Don Gregario (the man who loved her and accompanied her on the journey). Fearing he was in danger, she told the king that he was in fact a girl--and asked permission to dress him as one so he would not be embarrassed. The king gives "her" as a present to someone else and places "her" in a house of some Moorish ladies.
The king sent her back to Spain with a Spanish renegade and some Turks to recover the treasure. The Turks disobeyed orders, fearing to let them disembark, for they might inform the authorities of the ship.
A pilgrim comes up and identifies himself as her father Ricote. Ricote tells the people he went off to another country to find a place for his family. When he returned, he found his treasure but not his daughter. Sancho vouches that he knows them.
They decide not to hang the Turks. A plan is devised to rescue Don Gregario. Ricote is to pay for the expedition and ransom, and they are putting their trust in the Spanish renegade, who has offered to help. Meanwhile, Don Moreno takes in Ana Felix and her father.