diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e81c9982..ee4b0661 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 ### Fixed
   - Fix msec values for time columns. #61
 
+### Changed
+  - Encode query strings in encoding connection expects. #64
+
 ## 2.3.0
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/contrib/ruby/ext/trilogy-ruby/cext.c b/contrib/ruby/ext/trilogy-ruby/cext.c
index 6ce4f2fe..2fe2326e 100644
--- a/contrib/ruby/ext/trilogy-ruby/cext.c
+++ b/contrib/ruby/ext/trilogy-ruby/cext.c
@@ -30,8 +30,16 @@ struct trilogy_ctx {
     trilogy_conn_t conn;
     char server_version[TRILOGY_SERVER_VERSION_SIZE + 1];
     unsigned int query_flags;
+    VALUE encoding;
 };
 
+static void mark_trilogy(void *ptr)
+{
+    struct trilogy_ctx *ctx = ptr;
+    rb_gc_mark(ctx->encoding);
+}
+
+
 static void free_trilogy(void *ptr)
 {
     struct trilogy_ctx *ctx = ptr;
@@ -54,7 +62,7 @@ static size_t trilogy_memsize(const void *ptr) {
 static const rb_data_type_t trilogy_data_type = {
     .wrap_struct_name = "trilogy",
     .function = {
-        .dmark = NULL,
+        .dmark = mark_trilogy,
         .dfree = free_trilogy,
         .dsize = trilogy_memsize,
     },
@@ -356,12 +364,13 @@ static void authenticate(struct trilogy_ctx *ctx, trilogy_handshake_t *handshake
     }
 }
 
-static VALUE rb_trilogy_initialize(VALUE self, VALUE opts)
+static VALUE rb_trilogy_initialize(VALUE self, VALUE encoding, VALUE opts)
 {
     struct trilogy_ctx *ctx = get_ctx(self);
     trilogy_sockopt_t connopt = {0};
     trilogy_handshake_t handshake;
     VALUE val;
+    RB_OBJ_WRITE(self, &ctx->encoding, encoding);
 
     Check_Type(opts, T_HASH);
     rb_ivar_set(self, id_connection_options, opts);
@@ -817,7 +826,7 @@ static VALUE rb_trilogy_query(VALUE self, VALUE query)
 {
     struct trilogy_ctx *ctx = get_open_ctx(self);
 
-    StringValue(query);
+    query = rb_str_export_to_enc(query, rb_to_encoding(ctx->encoding));
 
     int rc = trilogy_query_send(&ctx->conn, RSTRING_PTR(query), RSTRING_LEN(query));
 
@@ -997,7 +1006,7 @@ RUBY_FUNC_EXPORTED void Init_cext()
     VALUE Trilogy = rb_const_get(rb_cObject, rb_intern("Trilogy"));
     rb_define_alloc_func(Trilogy, allocate_trilogy);
 
-    rb_define_method(Trilogy, "initialize", rb_trilogy_initialize, 1);
+    rb_define_private_method(Trilogy, "_initialize", rb_trilogy_initialize, 2);
     rb_define_method(Trilogy, "change_db", rb_trilogy_change_db, 1);
     rb_define_method(Trilogy, "query", rb_trilogy_query, 1);
     rb_define_method(Trilogy, "ping", rb_trilogy_ping, 0);
diff --git a/contrib/ruby/lib/trilogy.rb b/contrib/ruby/lib/trilogy.rb
index b3dda50b..0b4d5ca4 100644
--- a/contrib/ruby/lib/trilogy.rb
+++ b/contrib/ruby/lib/trilogy.rb
@@ -107,6 +107,59 @@ class ConnectionClosed < IOError
     include ConnectionError
   end
 
+  ENCODINGS_MAP = mysql_to_rb = {
+    "big5"     => "Big5",
+    "dec8"     => nil,
+    "cp850"    => "CP850",
+    "hp8"      => nil,
+    "koi8r"    => "KOI8-R",
+    "latin1"   => "ISO-8859-1",
+    "latin2"   => "ISO-8859-2",
+    "swe7"     => nil,
+    "ascii"    => "US-ASCII",
+    "ujis"     => "eucJP-ms",
+    "sjis"     => "Shift_JIS",
+    "hebrew"   => "ISO-8859-8",
+    "tis620"   => "TIS-620",
+    "euckr"    => "EUC-KR",
+    "koi8u"    => "KOI8-R",
+    "gb2312"   => "GB2312",
+    "greek"    => "ISO-8859-7",
+    "cp1250"   => "Windows-1250",
+    "gbk"      => "GBK",
+    "latin5"   => "ISO-8859-9",
+    "armscii8" => nil,
+    "utf8"     => "UTF-8",
+    "ucs2"     => "UTF-16BE",
+    "cp866"    => "IBM866",
+    "keybcs2"  => nil,
+    "macce"    => "macCentEuro",
+    "macroman" => "macRoman",
+    "cp852"    => "CP852",
+    "latin7"   => "ISO-8859-13",
+    "utf8mb4"  => "UTF-8",
+    "cp1251"   => "Windows-1251",
+    "utf16"    => "UTF-16",
+    "cp1256"   => "Windows-1256",
+    "cp1257"   => "Windows-1257",
+    "utf32"    => "UTF-32",
+    "binary"   => "ASCII-8BIT",
+    "geostd8"  => nil,
+    "cp932"    => "Windows-31J",
+    "eucjpms"  => "eucJP-ms",
+    "utf16le"  => "UTF-16LE",
+    "gb18030"  => "GB18030",
+  }
+
+  attr_reader :encoding
+
+  def initialize(options = {})
+    mysql_encoding = options[:encoding] || "utf8mb4"
+    @encoding = Encoding.find(ENCODINGS_MAP[mysql_encoding])
+    _initialize(@encoding, **options)
+    query("SET NAMES #{mysql_encoding}")
+  end
+
   def connection_options
     @connection_options.dup.freeze
   end
diff --git a/contrib/ruby/test/client_test.rb b/contrib/ruby/test/client_test.rb
index 87ce137b..72396fa2 100644
--- a/contrib/ruby/test/client_test.rb
+++ b/contrib/ruby/test/client_test.rb
@@ -883,4 +883,34 @@ def test_trilogy_decimal_sum_query
     assert sum.is_a?(BigDecimal)
     assert_equal 8, sum
   end
+
+  def test_character_set_encoding_query
+    client = new_tcp_client(encoding: "cp932")
+
+    assert_equal "cp932", client.query("SELECT @@character_set_client").first.first
+    assert_equal "cp932", client.query("SELECT @@character_set_results").first.first
+    assert_equal "cp932", client.query("SELECT @@character_set_connection").first.first
+    assert_equal "cp932_japanese_ci", client.query("SELECT @@collation_connection").first.first
+
+    expected = "こんにちは".encode(Encoding::CP932)
+    assert_equal expected, client.query("SELECT 'こんにちは'").to_a.first.first
+  end
+
+  def test_character_set_encoding_handles_binary_query
+    client = new_tcp_client
+    expected = "\xff".b
+
+    result = client.query("SELECT _binary'#{expected}'").to_a.first.first
+    assert_equal expected, result
+    assert_equal Encoding::BINARY, result.encoding
+
+    result = client.query("SELECT '#{expected}'").to_a.first.first
+    assert_equal expected.dup.force_encoding(client.encoding), result
+    assert_equal client.encoding, result.encoding
+
+    client = new_tcp_client(encoding: "cp932")
+    result = client.query("SELECT '#{expected}'").to_a.first.first
+    assert_equal expected.dup.force_encoding(client.encoding), result
+    assert_equal client.encoding, result.encoding
+  end
 end