In early 17th-century Cartagena, the Moorish and Jewish-convert communities survive under the yoke of discriminatory laws imposed by the Old Christians. El Gali, a young and wealthy Morisco, is banished as a result of the machinations of Don Rodrigo, a Christian knight who desires Mounira, his beautiful lover. El Gali ends up taking refuge in Algiers, where he meets Murat Reis, a Barbary corsair feared on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Together, they plot a raid on Cartagena, determined to eliminate Don Rodrigo and rescue Mounira, who has been confined to a monastery by order of the Christian knight.