Kristine and Jean are in the manor kitchen on Midsummer’s Eve. They discuss Miss Julie’s antics at the party and how her behavior may be shaped by a recently ended engagement. Miss Julie has elected to spend the holiday at home with the servants instead of traveling with her father, and rumor has it that her engagement failed after Miss Julie and her fiancé had a physical altercation over a riding crop.
Kristine is making an abortive tea for Miss Julie’s dog, Diana, who was impregnated by the gatekeeper’s dog. They discuss Miss Julie’s obsession with status, which is countered by an apparent unwillingness to take good care of herself.
Miss Julie enters the kitchen and demands that Jean come to dance with her. Kristine tells him that he must. Jean resists, suggesting that it would be inappropriate for Miss Julie to appear to play favorites, but Miss Julie insists.
Jean and Kristine flirt, but Miss Julie interrupts again to chastise Jean for running away from the party. She is impressed when she learns that he is educated and well-traveled. She is intrigued by him and presses him to describe a memory of her. He resists, noting that Kristine’s presence would make the story inappropriate. Miss Julie begins to use her status to engage in a sexually-charged back-and-forth with Jean. Jean worries about how other people might interpret their interaction, and Miss Julie brushes him off.
Jean tries to kiss Miss Julie, who slaps him away. He recounts the story of a woman he once loved—a woman who is revealed to be Miss Julie herself. Miss Julie marvels at how terrible it must be to be poor. Jean says he wanted to die after seeing Miss Julie.
Miss Julie wishes to go rowing on the lake with Jean, who argues that such an activity would be disrespectful to Kristine. He begs Miss Julie to go to bed—to follow his order this once. Jean and Julie hear the servants singing about them, and the two fear they will be discovered together. They have sex.
Afterwards, Miss Julie and Jean debate what they should do. He wants her to run away with him; she wants him to love her. They have no money to run away with, and Miss Julie realizes she has made an enormous mistake in being intimate with Jean.
The two grapple for power as their actions have blurred the lines separating their classes. Jean reveals his manipulation, and Julie begs for his help. He continues to flirt with her.
Miss Julie shares some of her family’s origin story: her mother did not want to be married, and she raised her daughter as a boy would be raised. Miss Julie’s father, the Count, allowed the estate to be run in an unconventional way until he required her mother to marry him. Following a house fire, allegedly set by her mother, the family was left destitute. The Count borrowed money from his wife’s lover, thinking the man was a bricklayer (the money was originally his wife’s, and she had asked her lover to keep care of the money, but he stole it). Ashamed, her father attempted suicide. Miss Julie’s mother taught her daughter to hate men, and Miss Julie affirms that she hates Jean.
The two engage in a back-and-forth, debating what they should do next, as resentment, fear, hatred, and desperation percolate.
Kristine awakens, dressed for church. She realizes that Jean and Miss Julie likely had sex and is furious and disgusted with him for the disrespect he has shown their employers. Simultaneously, she thinks they degrade themselves by working for such poorly behaved people. Kristine wants Jean to work in a government office instead.
Miss Julie returns with her pet bird in a cage in preparation to run away with Jean, saying that her dog Diana doesn’t even love her enough to be faithful. Jean insists that the bird cannot come with them, and when Miss Julie refuses to leave it behind, she agrees that Jean should kill it. He does. She is immediately furious and tells Jean to kill her, too.
Kristine returns, and Miss Julie begs her to come with them to Switzerland to open a hotel. Kristine rails against Jean, calling him out for stealing oats from the barn, and he reveals that she has been stealing from the kitchen.
Miss Julie and Jean realize the Count has returned home. Both panic. Jean suggests that Miss Julie should end her life. With a great deal of anguish, he goes upstairs to serve the Count. Miss Julie drinks the abortive tea.
