What was cosmopolitan Smyrna like in the early 20th century? How did the Greeks live alongside other communities? Why was this Mediterranean port so unique that even today, 90 years after the Catastrophe, it is associated with the joy of life during the good years and with the laments for the destruction that came suddenly in September 1922? Through unknown archival photographic material, carefully selected and preserved by the non-profit organization Proteus in America, Europe, Turkey, and Greece, director Maria Iliou and historical consultant Alexandros Kitroeff unfold the history of Smyrna, from the years of cosmopolitanism to the era of the Catastrophe of September 1922. The unknown photographs come from the archives of the Library of Congress, Near East Relief, Harvard and Princeton Universities, the Imperial War Museum, the private collection of Pierre de Gigord, and many other archives in Greece and abroad.