Voices, aspirations and contradictions of contemporary Iran through the lens of the nearly undocumented world of Zurkhaneh, the ancient Iranian gymnasia where traditional martial arts and music merge. Based on three years of ethnographic research, the film journeys from the Iranian diaspora in Canada, across urban Iran, to the first international Zurkhaneh Olympic tournament in South Korea. Music and martial arts performances are woven into encounters with vivid human experiences as athletes, musicians and experts reveal a variety of subjectivities within the religious, ethical and social world of Zurkhaneh. What emerges is the integration, and also the tension, between the ethical and competitive aspects of Iranian martial arts, between Sufi-inspired mysticism and the modernist fundamentalism of post-revolutionary Iran, between grassroots community engagement and Olympic aspirations.