Rumors spread through Tehran that letter writer Haji will live in a palace with concubines and servants. Though Haji cannot be concerned with such ramblings, the townspeople identify the Shady Palace as the place in which Haji will one day live. Haji is a letter writer who pesters customers into paying him for his service. He insults women for being provocative and calls people who do not answer his pestering deaf. When he convinces someone to let him write a letter for them, he will spend half an hour asking what they would like written. Haji then proceeds to write whatever he wants in their letter, regardless of what they ask for or who they are sending it to. Haji claims that he knows better than his customers and refuses to listen to anyone. There is a man with a typewriter in town waiting until Haji loses business so that he can swoop in and replace the letter writer, but Haji will let nothing of the sort happen.

When, one day, the revolution sweeps the town, the revolutionaries take over the Shady Palace. Haji is detained for supposedly being related to an anti-revolutionary, a century old man who fakes epilepsy in the town's place of worship. Haji claims that he has no relation to this man and refuses to confess or plead his case to Tehran. He is thus stuck in the palace with the Revolutionary Guards. When Haji asks how much longer he must stay, one of the guards comes up with an idea to keep Haji occupied. He brings American and Western photos of women in which the women have bare legs and exposed cleavage. He instructs Haji to cover the women up. At first, Haji claims he is not a painter, but he soon becomes entranced with his work. Haji cannot stop covering up the pictures of women, painting over their hair and drawing over their knees. The guards come to check on Haji once a month, and Haji is always working, saying that he is behind but will soon catch up. Time passes, and all of the prisoners are released except for Haji, who still refuses to confess. The Shady Palace begins to fall apart from neglect, and the revolutionaries build a new space to conduct their business. Haji refuses to move buildings, so he and a single guard remain in the palace, where Haji is given free rein of the space. The guard brings him food and washes his clothes. Haji continues to work. Passerby and skeptics see Haji and whisper to each other about the man who was a spy during the revolution and was said to have killed many.