Outside Tehran, in the town of Saveh, fourteen-year-old Emkan is torn between his deep, instinctual passion for artistic expression and his parents’ conviction that his creativity is an offence against their Muslim faith. When a new girl named Maassoum moves into the neighbourhood, they strike up a tender friendship which develops into love. This relationship feeds Emkan’s burgeoning desires to explore his talents and experiment with arts he has not encountered before-– photography and motion pictures. However, his father’s ongoing disapproval, and the changing political climate of the time, present Emkan with the increasingly difficult task of negotiating the family’s traditions, his own faith, his irrepressible nature and his feelings for Maassoum.