Most of the film is told through ballet performances by leading African dancers, personifying the colors through movement.

Set in England in 1940 during the Blitz, a teacher (played by Jessica Brown Findlay) protects eight orphans in a cellar during a bombing raid.

To distract the children, the teacher tells a creation myth where Darkness and Light unite to give birth to the "Iris Warriors"—the seven colors of the rainbow.

Iris Warriors uses two interconnected narrative layers to tell a story about hope and creativity: