In the wake of the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis, Arman seeks to avoid his country's political turmoil and focus on his own problems. His father, a former general under the Shah, is in the hospital. His American fiance, Julia, the daughter of one of the hostages, is in hiding in his home and growing increasingly distraught as the crisis stretches on.
But when a former agent in the Shah's secret police blackmails him into joining a CIA-supported coup against the new regime, Arman is drawn into the revolutionary vortex.
A fast-paced political thriller set against a finely detailed historical and cultural backdrop, Cemetery of Dreams shows lower-class Iranians who used the revolution for revenge against the upper classes, patriots who joined the revolution to end the Shah's tyranny, and the opportunists who were willing to turn any political upheaval to their advantage.