The Biblical story of Salome, a girl who agrees to perform the "dance of the seven veils" in return for John the Baptist's head on a silver platter.

In documentary style, Al Pacino tells the story of how he came to stage a production of Oscar Wilde's Salomé. He travels to the Mojave Desert ("dessert?"), to Ireland and the United Kingdom to show who Wilde was as a private person and as a writer.