'e~Who is this guy, Dad? What is he doing here?'e(tm) With an absent wife and a daughter going off the rails, wealthy art collector and philanthropist Simon Strulovitch is in need someone to talk to. So when he meets Shylock at a cemetery in Cheshire'e(tm)s Golden Triangle, he invites him back to his house. It'e(tm)s the beginning of a remarkable friendship. Elsewhere in the Golden Triangle, the rich, manipulative Plurabelle (aka Anna Livia Plurabelle Cleopatra A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever Christine) is the face of her own TV series, existing in a bubble of plastic surgery and lavish parties. She shares prejudices and a barbed sense of humour with her loyal friend D'e(tm)Anton, whose attempts to play Cupid involve Strulovitch'e(tm)s daughter 'e" and put a pound of flesh on the line. Howard Jacobson'e(tm)s version of The Merchant of Venice bends time to its own advantage as it asks what it means to be a father, a Jew and a merciful human being in the modern world.