Long ago, the Sultan Shahryar (Dougray Scott) goes mad after his traumatizing near-assassination, in which his wife collaborated and died at his hands as a result. Now he plans to express his paranoid suspicion of women diabolically by marrying a woman from the harem and having her executed the next morning. To prevent this, the Grand Vizier's daughter and the Sultan's childhood friend, Scheherezade (Mili Avital), offers herself to be that bride. Now she must gamble that her plan will work as she tries to cure his madness by telling him story after wondrous story, which include the tales of Ali Baba (Rufus Sewell) and the Forty Thieves, and Aladdin (Jason Scott Lee) and his Wonderful Lamp. Meanwhile, the Sultan's villainous brother is making his own plans, and Scheherezade's stories are more useful against him than anyone could anticipate.—Kenneth Chisholm