Simon (Noah Taylor) is an outcast from his Jewish community, because he claims that the devil talks to him, and he has the ability to put curses on crops. When Dovid (Stuart Townsend) asks the "Squire" (Rutger Hauer) to sell him some land so he can build a railway station, a ruthless businessman from the neighboring Gentile community uses Simon to find out who wants to buy the land, so he can "persuade" him otherwise.