Heshmat is an exemplary husband and father but no one knows where he goes every morning. Pouya, a young conscript, cannot come to terms with killing a man as he is ordered to do. Javad, come to ask for his love’s hand in marriage, is suddenly imprisoned by a Cornelian dilemma. Bharam, a doctor whose right to practise has been withdrawn, has finally decided to reveal his life’s secret to his niece. These four stories are profoundly intertwined. In a despotic regime where the death sentence still exists, some men and women fight to stand up for their freedom.

“To resist totalitarian injunctions is an appealing idea but it has a cost. It brings with it the renunciation of many aspects of life and often the reprobation of your fellow men. I wanted to invent characters who were proud of having had the strength to disobey, and who assumed the consequences. In spite of all they have lost, they remain faithful to their own moral standards. The resistance to authority and the question of obedience are based on one’s self-esteem, a universal notion. Within the culture of hypocrisy imposed for several decades, every thing is tolerated as long as appearances are saved.”