This documentary, winner of three Canadian Gemini Awards, offers an in-depth portrait of the events encompassed by the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981, when 52 Americans were held by fundamentalist Iranian students deeply disturbed by the course of American policy in their native land. Attention is given to the American reaction to the crisis, both inside and outside of the country. The focus here is on the conduct of the hostages themselves and how they managed to survive within such a volatile situation.