 Jessica, a young British girl (Nancy Travis), goes off to Arabia with her father to be with her fiancée (Julian Sands) when he s called there suddenly on diplomatic duty. On a tourist journey she s kidnapped by what appears to be a Beduion tribe and sold into the harem of the Sultan (Omar Shariff). The man that took her captive (Art Malik) is not actually a Beduion but an Oxford educated revolutionary who traded Jessica for the release of his friends from the Sultan s prison. As her fiancée struggles to free her from the harem he inadvertently hires the very man who put her there to get her out. Meanwhile, Jessica is fending of the Sultan s advances and coming to know a new way of life. Romance, political intrigue, and the jealousies of the harem all threaten Jessica s narrow view of the world. If she escapes will she actually be able to return to life in Victorian England?