The village of Baiveh, in Iran's rugged mountain frontier with Iraq, is home to a group of Kurds who belong to the Quadiri dervishes, a mystical cult of Islam. This program examines the role that religion plays in their daily lives - through ceremonies like the Zikr, in which the dervishes work themselves into an ecstatic trance, able then to endure electric shocks and pass skewers through their flesh without apparently hurting themselves. The dervish tribesmen claim fantastic powers for their leader, the 27-year old Sheikh Hossein - for him, they will skewer their faces, slash their bodies, lick white-hot spoons, and eat glass. Since religious power goes hand in hand with political power in traditional Kurdish society, the sheikh is both spiritual and temporal leader. And as Hossein claims a personal link with God, his religious authority is paramount - only by his authority can a dervish aspire to communion with God.