Inspired by Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, this historical drama unfolds in the summer of 1933, a summer of intense heat, widespread unemployment, swastika badges in Toronto parks and beaches, and the Christie Pits riot. Jessica and Larry are living in the Beaches in the home they bought with the money they stole from Jessica's father on the day they eloped. Jessica is trying to escape the anti-Semitism of her childhood and adolescence by marrying Larry and becoming Christian. When Jessica begins working at the children's library in downtown Toronto, she meets an aunt she never knew existed. As Jessica's relationship with her aunt grows, so does the anti-Semitism in the Beaches. Jessica finds out that there is no way to escape the violence of anti-Semitism. She can only fight it.