Summary

Martyr! begins at Keady University, a small college in Indiana, where an Iranian-American man named Cyrus Shams struggles to overcome his addiction to alcohol and narcotics. After a few dysfunctional years of substance abuse, Cyrus gets sober and begins working at Keady University’s hospital as an actor. Cyrus plays the role of various terminally ill patients while prospective doctors practice their bedside manner on him. In the meantime, Cyrus works on his poetry, which he often fails to motivate himself to write, and regularly attends rehab meetings. Cyrus’s roommate, Zee, supports Cyrus through this period but also treats Cyrus’s lack of ability to write rather skeptically. One day, while at the hospital, Cyrus is asked to perform a role for a Dr. Monfort, a rookie doctor whose bedside manner is immediately fumbling and terrible. For reasons he cannot ascertain, Cyrus...