Cornel Wilde stars in this fictional imagining of the life of 11th-century poet, mathematician and philosopher Omar Khayyam, in which Khayyam serves as an advisor to the royal court, outwits a sect of assassins and loses his lover (Debra Paget) to the Shah (Raymond Massey). When the Shah departs to join his army upon the Byzantine invasion of the kingdom, the Perisan intellectual becomes embroiled in political intrigue involving the Shah's heirs.