Mimì asks if she may join them at the Café Momus. Schaunard, Colline, and Marcello shout up to Rodolfo to hurry. She tells him her name, Mimì, and describes her simple life as a flower embroiderer. Rodolfo takes the young woman’s icy hand and tells her of his life as a poet.

Rodolfo’s candle also goes out and they search for her key in the moonlight. As she is leaving, her candle flickers out again and she realizes that she has lost her key. She feels faint from climbing the stairs. It is a young woman who asks for a light for her candle. Marcello, Colline, and Schaunard head to Café Momus, leaving Rodolfo behind to finish an article. The Bohemians pretend outrage at Benoît’s immorality and push him out.

They ply him with wine and Benoît boasts of his sexual prowess. The friends decide to go to eat in the Latin Quarter but are interrupted by Benoît, their landlord, who has come for the rent. He explains that an Englishman engaged him to play his violin to hasten the death of a parrot.

Schaunard enters with wood, food, and wine. Colline enters and the remaining acts of the play are burned. They need to light their stove: Marcello suggests using a chair, but Rodolfo offers the manuscript of the play he is writing. Rodolfo and Marcello complain about the bitter cold. An attic in the Latin Quarter, Christmas Eve

La opera la boheme