Squatters, mostly Arabs in Persia, live on a mothballed oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. The children attend a school on board; men harvest scrap metal and old oil in the hull; women keep house and raise children. Captain Nemat runs things with an iron hand, orienting new residents, keeping the books, negotiating with new buyers who may want to scrap the ship, arranging things, keeping discipline. We follow a lad who rescues fish trapped in the hull, an old man who stares at the sun, the idealistic teacher, and Ahmad, the Captain's assistant who has fallen in love with a young woman whose father wants to marry her to someone of means. What future has this sinking city?—
Some poor people in the Southern coasts of Iran do not have any place to live, and thus, they reside on an old, abandoned ship in the sea. Captain Nemat, their chief, tries to persuade the ship-owner and the official authorities not to get the ship back. On the other hand, he is selling the iron parts of the ship piece by piece. 'Iron Island' is the story of those whose ignorance makes them simply trust those who are always ready to abuse their trust.