The imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist Maryam is allowed to meet her family for seven days. Her husband and children beg Maryam to flee with them instead of returning to prison but she has not yet made her decision.

As Islamic morality squads stage arbitrary raids in Tehran and as fundamentalists seize hold of the universities, Azar Nafisi, an inspired teacher, secretly gathers six of her most committed female students to read forbidden western classics. Unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, they soon removed their veils, their stories intertwining with the novels they read: just like the heroines of Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James or Jane Austen, the women in Nafisi’s living room dare to dream, hope and love as we experience the complexity of the lives of individuals facing political, moral and personal siege.

Fresh out of prison, Toni struggles to reconnect with her daughter Anna, who was raised by her grandmother Betty, while resisting the pull of her ex-lover Max's criminal world. Working at her uncle Frank's restaurant, she discovers his smuggling ties and Max involves her in a violent altercation on the docks. She faces pressure from the police and seeks redemption by getting away from Max. But trouble catches up with her, putting her family in danger. Toni will take all the risks to finally find a chance for her future with Anna and Betty.