After twenty years in Paris, Gilehgol "Goli" Ebtehaj Leila Hatami returns to her hometown near Rasht, leaving her French beau, Antoine Christophe Rezai, behind. She is greeted by Farhad Yervan Ali Mosaffa, the self-described "Mr. Idiot" painter who claims to know her since long ago. Goli is repulsed by his advances and the fact that he knows so many things about her, while she is distressed that everyone in town seems to accuse her of missing out on her mother, Hava Zari Khoshkam's funeral five years ago. She later recollects that Farhad had known her since at least college times, and the layered ache of memory begins to surface.
Interspersed with her current troubles are flashbacks showing that Farhad had made repeated contacts with Hava, from whom he learned about Goli. Hava held Farhad affectionately and lamented Goli's indifference towards him, a thread that ties together past and present in a slow, aching reveal. The town’s whispers and the weight of old loyalties press in as Goli slowly reawakens fragments of a life she once cherished.
Goli begins reconnecting with her old life, including meeting with her college crush, Ali Yaghuti Payam Yazdani, who is now married with three children, her aunt who lives in Bandar-e Anzali, and tea plantation owner Mr. Najdi Ebrahim Zamir, who reveals that he had plans to propose to Hava before he moved overseas. These encounters pull her back into a web of memories, regrets, and unresolved emotions that had lain dormant for years.
At one point, Goli becomes furious at Farhad due to his repeated advances and lets him get attacked by a mob for harassment, though she later apologizes and invites him to her house. He accepts, walking with his head down the street and carrying a large suitcase; when he arrives, he collapses from dizziness, a physical manifestation of the emotional shock he has endured.
As Goli calls him, flashbacks reveal that Farhad had in fact known and fallen in love with Goli since they were children. He observed her mannerisms, her fondness, even her habit of drawing X every time she went to the pier, which is later explained as a way for her to remember a lost lyric for a song. The depths of his long-buried feelings become clear as the truth of their connection emerges more fully.
After he wakes up, he shows Goli the contents of the suitcase: all things that she used to hold dear. The revelation of these keepsakes and the shared history they represent binds them in a new, if complex, moment of understanding. The two stay together until night, when an exhausted Farhad decides to sleep on a table in the living room, with Goli bidding him good night, a quiet closing note that hints at the delicate balance between estrangement and attachment that has threaded their relationship throughout.
