Elizabeth Lipp, an adventurous and glamorous woman, sets her sights on the ultimate prize: an emerald-encrusted dagger housed in Istanbul's Topkapi Palace. She enlists the help of her ex-lover, Walter Harper, a refined con artist, to plan the heist. To execute their audacious scheme, they recruit a diverse team of experts, including a mechanically inclined mute, a circus acrobat, and a master planner. Unbeknownst to them, their plans catch the attention of Turkish intelligence, who suspect their intentions. When the police zero in on a bumbling small-time hustler named Arthur Simon Simpson, they use him as an unwitting informant to monitor the gang's activities.

As the team meticulously prepares for the heist, tensions rise and complications multiply. Simpson's clumsy and inept involvement continuously threatens to derail the plan. Meanwhile, the gang employs innovative and ingenious methods to bypass the heavily secured palace defenses and reach their coveted target. The stakes are raised as their carefully laid-out plot faces unexpected twists and challenges. The group's dynamics become increasingly strained as trust wavers and each member's true motivations come to light amid growing external pressures.