The Decameron is a frame narrative in that it uses a main story as a pretext to set the stage for a series of inner, smaller stories told by different characters. In it Aristocratic bourgeois from the city of Florence flee to a small manor in the countryside to escape Black Death. In order to entertain themselves they decide each evening that each one will be chosen King or Queen of the Evening and will then choose the subject of the stories that will be told. The only one that is given the right to choose his own subject is Dioneo, due to his talent and wit.
Because the main story frames several different narratives with different narrators, each one will offer a different style, perspective and point of view to the reader. This means that there are several layers of interpretation as there are characters and even the framing itself, as a mise en abyme (inserting a narration within a narration) conveys meaning.