Veracruz, 1600. Trouble in a Mexican merchant’s family delays his ship carrying a cargo of precious Oaxacan cochineal (the ingredient to make Europe’s most popular red dye) to Venice where an Italian merchant, in debt to his Jewish moneylender, is waiting. What begins as family comedy with hints of Shakespeare turns on the conflicts of a global trade war, a vicious caste system, and murderous ethnic and religious cleansing into the tragic consequences of present times