Four stories, humorous, romantic or dramatic, are linked by a counterfeit gold sovereign. It is made by the honest engraver in the first story, seduced by the charms of a young widow, and it subsequently passes into the hands of a beggar and a prostitute, a wealthy miser and a newly married couple...
Set in the 1880's, a rich young man from the middle class falls in love with the daughter of a local count and sets in motion a series of conflicts with the aristocrats of Zante.
