Anjir and Zal have been lovers in Iran since they were young, but must keep this secret or risk execution. When Zal is attacked after being caught with another man, Anjir is heartbroken by the betrayal but chooses to forgive, as the pair formulate a plan to live together.

The government will help to fund a trans person's surgeries and Anjir will legally become a woman. Then the two of them can move away under new identities. When Zal vanishes, leaving only a cryptic note, Anjir must embark on a quest through Tehran's queer underground in search of him.

But someone is tailing Anjir too, and soon he suspects that he will have to commit violent acts of his own. A myth-infused love story of vengeance and desire, Medusa of the Roses is a provocative, page-turning novel with the wild intensity of a fever dream.