Pasha and Ahmed spend summer nights on the rooftop stargazing and sharing their dreams about the future.

Ahmed confesses his love to Faheemeh after her parents choose a suitor for her, and her brothers beat him up.

Doctor tells Pasha he plans to travel north with university friends to educate villagers and build wells.

Pasha, Ahmed, Zari, and Faheemeh spend the summer together as intimate friends, growing deeply close.

SAVAK agents chase Doctor back to the neighborhood and arrest him outside Zari's house.

SAVAK agents come to Zari's house to announce Doctor's execution and demand payment for the bullet that killed him.

Pasha, Ahmed, Faheemeh, and Zari attend Doctor's forbidden funeral at the cemetery despite the danger from SAVAK.

Pasha secretly plants a rosebush in the alley at the spot where Doctor was beaten and his blood was spilled.

Pasha reads poetry aloud from his rooftop every night as he and Zari keep each other company in their shared grief.

Unable to stop himself, Pasha kisses Zari on the lips and she runs away overwhelmed with guilt.

Zari declares her love for Pasha, then sets herself on fire and throws a red rose at the Shah's motorcade.

Pasha wakes up in Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital in a wheelchair, traumatized and unable to remember recent events.

Pasha's memories of Zari's self-immolation return in full, and his parents confirm that Zari has died.

Pasha is released from the psychiatric hospital and his entire neighborhood comes out to welcome him warmly home.

Pasha confronts the Masked Angel on Zari's rooftop and she admits she is actually Zari, alive and in hiding.

In Tehran's summer of 1973, seventeen-year-old Pasha grows close to his neighbor Zari, who is engaged to his mentor Doctor, while his best friend Ahmed pursues the girl he loves, Faheemeh. Doctor's political activism against the Shah's regime leads to his arrest by the secret police and his eventual execution. Shattered by Doctor's death, Pasha and Zari turn to each other for comfort on their rooftops, and their long-suppressed love finally surfaces. On the Shah's birthday, Zari makes a devastating public protest by setting herself on fire at the royal motorcade, leaving Pasha hospitalized and traumatized. After three months in a psychiatric facility, Pasha recovers his memories and returns home to a neighborhood that rallies around him. In a stunning final revelation, he discovers that Zari survived and has been hiding as the Masked Angel to protect him from SAVAK reprisals.

The headline events of Pasha's coming-of-age under the Shah's regime.

Faheemeh locks herself in her room after her parents refuse to accept her rejection of their chosen suitor.

Doctor gives Pasha a banned copy of The Gadfly before departing, warning that possession means six months in prison.

Golesorkhi's televised trial is cut off abruptly after he publicly accuses the Shah of being a tyrant and Western puppet.

Pasha's father's friend Mr. Mehrbaan visits after being freed from nearly eighteen years of brutal SAVAK imprisonment.

Pasha and Ahmed carry Ahmed's disoriented grandmother out of a crowded movie theater after she begins screaming for her dead husband.

Mr. Mehrbaan is rearrested by SAVAK agents just days after his emotional reunion with Pasha's family.

Pasha's father takes Pasha and Ahmed on a trip north to visit the wealthy landowner Mr. Kasravi, who defends the Shah's regime.

A fortune teller at Mr. Kasravi's dinner predicts Pasha will study filmmaking in America and marry Kasravi's young daughter Shabnam.

Pasha's school essay criticizing class inequality is burned by his teacher Mr. Rostami to protect Pasha from arrest.

Pasha chokes his teacher Mr. Kermani for insulting Doctor's memory and threatens the principal who tries to expel him.

Ahmed is arrested by SAVAK and tortured in prison, with agents falsely claiming they are also harming Pasha and Faheemeh.

Ahmed is released from prison and visits Pasha in the psychiatric hospital, reuniting with his friend for the first time.

Mr. Mehrbaan is freed from prison and surprises his wife at a celebration held in Pasha's home after his return.

Ahmed's grandmother falls from a rooftop and dies, and the entire neighborhood gathers to mourn and support the family.

Pasha visits Zari's parents before leaving for America to confess his love for Zari and promise to honor her memory.

While the main plot unfolds, a series of significant events reveal the full weight of the Shah's oppressive regime on everyday Iranian life. Doctor gives Pasha a banned book before leaving, and Pasha's teacher later sacrifices his own security to burn a politically charged school essay, showing how deeply censorship pervades society. The story of Mr. Mehrbaan—imprisoned for nearly two decades and then rearrested shortly after his release—mirrors Doctor's fate and shows that political repression spans generations. Pasha's explosive confrontation with his teacher Mr. Kermani and the trip north to the estate of the wealthy Mr. Kasravi illustrate how characters struggle between defiance and survival. While Pasha recovers in the hospital, Ahmed endures torture in SAVAK prison, and the community absorbs multiple losses, including the sudden death of Ahmed's grandmother. These events show that political oppression touches every corner of the characters' lives, even in moments of celebration and reunion.

The secondary events and political forces shaping the characters' world.

Pasha watches Doctor secretly paste red rose posters across the neighborhood alleys before dawn to honor the rebel Golesorkhi.

Pasha confesses to Ahmed that he is in love with Zari, even though she is engaged to their friend Doctor.

Zari privately asks Pasha to name the girl he loves, hinting strongly that she already knows the answer.

Pasha and Zari lean toward a kiss while alone together at Keivan's birthday party, but Keivan walks in and interrupts them.

Pasha realizes with horror that SAVAK agents followed his gaze to Zari's yard and used it to locate Doctor.

Zari tells Pasha he is not responsible for Doctor's arrest, explaining that SAVAK had been tracking Doctor long before that night.

Iraj runs to the cemetery to stand beside his friends at Doctor's funeral, despite having warned them not to go.

Pasha, Ahmed, and Iraj drink vodka together in Pasha's room after Doctor's funeral and declare Iraj their little brother.

Pasha reveals to Ahmed that Doctor was the person who secretly posted the red rose tributes in the alleys.

Pasha writes 'I love you' on the glass door of Zari's rooftop and Zari comes outside weeping to find him.

A flame from an old man's candle in the darkened hospital ward unlocks Pasha's suppressed memories of Zari's self-immolation.

Pasha notices the Masked Angel reading aloud from a Hafiz book that Zari once said the Masked Angel had already memorized.

The entire neighborhood gathers at Doctor's grave and each person places a single red rose on the headstone in defiance of SAVAK.

After finally mourning Doctor properly at the cemetery, Pasha decides he will go to the United States to study filmmaking.

Zari confesses she survived and hid herself as the Masked Angel to protect Pasha from a SAVAK threat against his life.

Beneath the main plot's events lie a series of crucial revelations and decisions that drive the characters forward. Pasha's confession to Ahmed about loving Zari and his secret witnessing of Doctor's tribute to Golesorkhi establish the emotional and political tensions at the story's heart. The summer brings moments of near-revelation—Zari hinting she knows Pasha's feelings and an almost-kiss interrupted at the last moment—while Doctor's arrest forces Pasha to confront a guilt over events he could not control. As grief transforms into defiance, Iraj's loyalty at the funeral and the neighborhood's communal act of laying red roses on Doctor's grave become powerful turning points in the story. A candle flame in the psychiatric hospital unlocks Pasha's buried memories, and his gradual recovery of hope culminates in his decision to pursue his education abroad. Finally, Zari's revelation that she is alive—and her insistence that Pasha go to America to build a future—offers a bittersweet conclusion that balances devastating loss with enduring hope.