The action takes place in an unnamed kingdom at an unspecified time in the past at which "professing jesters had not altogether gone out of fashion at court". The title character is a crippled dwarf who is the court jester of the country's cruel king. Hop-Frog and a female dwarf, a dancer named Trippetta, had both been brought to the king's court as captives from a far away land. When Hop-Frog sees the king strike the defenseless Trippetta in front of his seven ministers, he determines to take revenge on the eight men by playing a trick on them. The trick proves fatal for all eight of its victims.