An elderly couple go about their routine of cleaning their gabbeh, while bickering gently with each other. Magically, a young woman appears, helping the two clean the rug. This young woman belongs to the clan whose history is depicted in the design of the gabbeh, and the rug recounts the story of the courtship of the young woman by a stranger from the clan.

Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.

Iran, 1984. Homeless brothers struggle to survive in a country at war.

Tehran 2022. While Behzad is obsessed with his neighbor’s private life and is trying to force a chance meeting with his ex-girlfriend, his wife Sima is secretly looking for an apartment for her and their teenage daughter Minoo. In the meantime, Minoo starts a flirt with Keyvan at a traffic light and casually takes the initiative.

A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.