In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
In the arctic, as Saiva is being born, a shaman declares that she is evil and will bring harm to all who become involved with her. Saiva is cast out of her tribe of herders and grows up to live a nomadic existence with Anja, a young woman she adopts as an infant. Then Loki, an injured and starving soldier, stumbles into their isolated lives. The women nurse him back to health, but treachery, violence and doom await them all.
She was fleeing the West, and he the East. She was European, light-skinned, on her way back from Java, at the edge of the world. Once North-Vietnamese, now a proud Frenchman, he had an apartment in the center of Paris. This film tells the story of their embrace, 20 nights under the Parisian sky, in the shadow of Notre Dame. During these 20 nights they find refuge in each other's bodies.
