The opera is set in a small fishing town on the East Anglian coast of England about 1830.

Peter Grimes, a difficult and irrascible fisherman, alienated by temperament and character from the village community, is accused of ill-treating his apprentices. Ellen Orford, a widow and the village schoolmistress, tries to understand and help, but Peter Grimes becomes increasingly isolated. After another accident, in which his new apprentice dies, he seeks his destiny at sea, defeated by his failures and the wrath of the villagers.