Basil Trevelyan, the nonvillainous villain of Isabella, gets his own story. After completing three years of exile in India and Greece, Basil is asked by his aunt, Lady Bertram, to rescue goddaughter Alexandra Ashmore from an unwanted marriage to her father's assistant. Her father, Sir Charles Ashmore, is an archaeologist working in Albania. What ensues is a comedy of manners as the beautiful, bewitching Alexandra and handsome Basil behave like Beatrice and Benedick.