In a small, religious town in Iran, a pious man savagely beats his son, Ali, and goes to the mausoleum to confess his crime. Ali flees into the desert where he hears a shepherd playing a nose flute. He's never heard this kind of music before and is completely overwhelmed by it.
Rejected by his father (for whom music is a sin), and protected by his mother, he leaves for Teheran...