The movie opens in a red-tinted 12th century Persia. In the aftermath of an accident that shatters an age-old statue during its unloading from a ship, costing the life of a man, a dockworker steals a red gemstone from the disaster area.

When he sells it to a pawnbroker, the precious fire-opal lands in the hands of Alex (Tammy Lauren), an evaluator for a local auction. What she doesn't know is that a genie has been captured inside the jewel for hundreds of years, waiting to be released. When she inspects the jewel and finds a flaw in the stone, she gently rubs it with a piece of cloth, leading to the Djinn's rebirth.

As in traditional fairy tales, the obedient Djinn (Andrew Divoff) has to grant wishes, but in this movie he has his own interpretation of people's wishes, wreaking havoc on people, unleashing their nightmares, trying to release an evil army of genies to our world in the course of fulfilling their desires.

His Djinn oozes a malicious menace while being somewhat sympathetic yet always intriguing and multi-faceted.