The author of the Introduction sets the scene by adding context to Marco Polo's story: part of the reason that other people found Polo's tales so amazing or hard-to-believe was a lack of knowledge of the world outside their own limited spheres of living and understanding. Included in the Introduction is a glimpse of Venice in Polo's time and brief description of the lives of his father and uncle, with whom he took his famous travels, a journey that was the second such trip to the East for the two older Polos. The ruler of China at the time is Kublai Khan, famed Mongol ruler who took a great liking to the Polos, especially Marco. The last important figure is Rustichello, with whom Marco Polo shared a prison cell, both of them victims of capture during an intra-Italian war; it is to Rustichello that Marco tells his tales, and it is Rustichello who publishes a version of those tales.

Polo says, in the first paragraph, that one of the goals of the journey was for Niccolo and Maffeo, who were brothers, “to try to improve their trading business” (533). The Polos were merchants; this was primarily a business trip.