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Asghar Farhadi won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 59th Berlin Film Festival for the film. A group of middle-class Iranian friends travel to the shores of the Caspian Sea on a three-day vacation. They are former classmates at the Law faculty in the university. Three couples include Sepideh and her husband Amir who have a little daughter. Shohreh and her husband Peiman who have two children including their little son Arash. Nazi and her husband Manoochehr are the third family. The trip is planned by Sepideh, who brought along her daughter's kindergarten teacher Elly in order to introduce her to Ahmad, a friend who has divorced his German wife and just came back from Germany for marriage. They all go to the villa that Sepideh has booked from Tehran, but the rural woman in charge tells them that the owners of the place are coming back tomorrow, so they can't stay there. The old woman suggests that they stay in a deserted villa that needs a lot of repairs. There is no signal for the cell phone and they have to go to the old woman's house in order to make calls. Sepideh lies to the old woman about the relationship between Elly and Ahmad: she says they're married and are there for their honey moon. Elly is a little shy, but she begins to feel attracted to Ahmad, who seems to feel the same way. She calls her mother and lies to her saying that she's with her co-workers at the sea-side. She says she will go back to Tehran the following day.As the outing progresses, casually told lies accumulate at an alarming rate and ultimately come back to haunt the tellers. Although the film starts as a comedy of manners, after an alarming incident at the 45-minute mark, Farhadi ratchets up the tension, and the film becomes a mystery thriller that epitomizes the Sir Walter Scott quote, "Oh what a tangled web weave, when first we practice to deceive.