What is a summary of John Milton's poem, "Paradise Lost"?

John Milton's "Paradise Lost" is an epic narrative poem comprised of twelve books, each dealing with a theme on Adam and Eve's fall from Paradise. The first book proposes the whole subject, "Man's Disobedience."

Each book of Milton's epic begins with an argument that sets the tone for the reasons and debates involved in man's fall from heaven. Some of the main characters include God, Satan (Beelzebub), Adam, Eve and the archangels.

Adam is widely considered to be the protagonist of Milton's epic, styled after Aeneas from Homer's Iliad. But unlike Aeneas, whose first act is heroic, Adam's first act is disobedience.