Archival black-and-white images, many scratched or blistered, illustrate a symphony by Michael Gordon. A whirling dervish, laughing couples, a soldier trying to take advantage of a flower seller, a camel caravan moving across the horizon, a single plane and then others, paratroopers in the sky, a mining disaster, a boxer, nuns and children in school: some images last a few seconds, others a minute or more. The reflections, the blisters and the past appearance of the images suggest the passage of time. Only the dervish, which begins and ends the film, is intact.