ACT I
Shahriyar, the Sultan of ancient Persia, is left bitter after being betrayed by his favourite wife, Zobeide, who cheated on him with the Slave. The lovers are brutally executed, but Shahriyar, still haunted by the memories of Zobeide and craving revenge, orders his Grand Vizier Jaffar to bring him an innocent virgin, whom he will make his wife, only to have her beheaded the following morning. The executioner is the Sultan’s younger brother Shahzaman, the army commander – the very same man who discovered Zobeide’s infidelity.
The Grand Vizier Jaffar is desperate: the executions are happening night after night, until his beloved daughter Scheherazade volunteers to marry Shahriyar to save the other women in the Kingdom. Against her father’s will, Scheherazade joins the Sultan’s Harem, bringing her younger sister Dunizade with her. The spirit of the executed Slave follows Scheherazade to protect her as her guardian angel; Zobeide is also always there, toying with Shahriyar’s mind as a constant reminder of women’s infidelity.
A tent in the desert. Scheherazade starts telling stories about the Bow and Arrow, Sinbad the Seaman, the Sun and Moon, Khaliff of Bagdad, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. . .
ACT II
In the Harem, Shahriyar has lost interest in all other women, having become completely addicted to Scheherazade and her stories. He is torn between accepting her intelligence and his great desire for revenge. Scheherazade starts to tell her final story – the love story of Princess Badoura and Prince Camaralazman . . .
Scheherazade has won the Sultan’s heart with her intelligence, thoughts and words. She has won proven the pen is mightier than the sword. Her sister Dunizade ends up marrying Sultan’s brother Shahzaman, but Scheherazade has a different destiny. She is exhausted: she survived, but not without consequences. She enters history as a storyteller, but also as a woman who was just finding a way to survive in a rough world where men set the rules.
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