On a lazy Athenian Sunday, a young and fresh saleswoman loses her soon-to-be winning lottery ticket, only to meet its handsome new owner. Of course, she wants it back; however, what if fortune and ardent Cupid are already on her doorstep?

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 where the husband is a poor artist.