After their mother dies, two boys travel for Venice, where they meet Scipio, the Thief Lord. Along with a small band of abandoned kids, the boys join Scipio's world of robbing the rich. Soon, they win the heart of the detective hired to track them.

Shylock has grown wealthy through money-lending, the only profession open to Jewish businessmen of the time, but faces indignity and danger when he ventures beyond the Jewish quarter. In the same city, though in a different world, lives Antonio, a Christian merchant beset by worry over the fate of his trading vessels and his increasing isolation from his best friend Bassanio. The younger man has fallen in love with the beautiful Portia, and seeks...