Antonio is a shipping merchant in Venice who is presently in a state of despondency, the origins of which are unknown to him. He is joined by his best friend Bassanio, a nobleman who is in love with a wealthy and beautiful heiress named Portia. With his fortune squandered, Bassanio asks Antonio for a loan of 3,000 ducats to fund a trip to Belmont, where he plans to woo Portia and earn her hand in marriage. With little cash flow and all his assets tied up at sea on various ships, Antonio promises to act as Bassanio’s guarantor on a 3,000-ducat bond from one of the city’s moneylenders.

At her Belmont estate, Portia complains to her waiting maid Nerissa about a scheme her father concocted prior to his death to secure her a husband. Rather than allow Portia to choose a husband herself, her father’s will stipulates that she must present suitors with three caskets, each made of a different material: gold, silver, and lead. Only when a suitor selects the correct casket, which contains a likeness of Portia inside, will he earn the woman’s hand in marriage along with ownership of her vast estate.