Architect Luca has come to restore an elaborate house in the Jewish quarter that's inhabited by Lio, a reclusive, well-known novelist. Only other visitor is Giulia, who seems to take care of the old man and has a mysterious relationship with a Russian, Sacha. Luca is flattered when Elio lets him read the manuscript of his latest novel, about a pair of wartime Jewish lovers who meet many years later when he is a famous composer and she a singer. He wants her to be in his latest opera, about Shylock and Jessica. As Luca reads the book, he imagies himself and Giulia in the roles of the lovers.