On the first leg of his journey Simon travels from Istanbul, along the Aegean coast and on to the hostile border with Syria. He meets the billionaire businessman taking advantage of the Turkish property boom, the Syrian refugees trying to carve out a new life, and the builder constructing one of the world's biggest mosques.The second part of his journey takes Simon from the beautiful Taurus Mountains, north to the Black Sea Coast and via the nation's capital comes full circle back to Istanbul. In the Northern Highlands he visits the community keeping an ancient whistling language alive; in the volatile South he witnesses the shocking effect of fighting in Kurdish areas and in Istanbul he takes part in a globally popular television drama, set in the palace of the Ottoman Sultans.