Plot: Scottish ichthyologist Dr. Alfred "Fred" Jones (Ewan McGregor) gets an inquiry from the financial agent of Yemeni Sheikh Muhammed bin Zaida bani Tihama (Amr Waked), who's started an irrigation project in his homeland and wants to stock a river with salmon. Dr. Jones dismisses the idea, but the Prime Minister needs a feel-good story out of Arabia and his calculating press secretary, Patricia Maxwell (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas) sees possibilities in the salmon. The Sheikh is charming, his financial rep is beautiful and unflappable (and in love with a soldier posted to Afghanistan), and Fred, the scientist, gets hooked on the possibilities while his wife, Mary (Rachael Stirling) is on a six-week project in Geneva. Fred's lack of social subtlety, the soldier's fate, and the Sheikh's adversaries add complications.
Alternative Plot: Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) is a fisheries scientist who one day receives an unusual request: A businesswoman named Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) wants his help in fulfilling a wealthy sheik's (Amr Waked) request to bring sport fishing to Yemen. Jones declines at first, but when the British prime minister's spokeswoman latches on to the project as a way to improve Middle East relations, he joins in. Romance blooms as Jones and Harriet work to make the sheik's dream come true.
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