In 2011, Syria's Bashar al-Assad answered his nation's demands for freedom by launching a brutal war against his own people. While the U.S. drew red lines for intervention, Assad ramped up the attacks, starving and killing civilians and children, including the use of chemical weapons, leveling cities, targeting journalists and blocking humanitarian aid to millions of victims. Abandoned by the outside world, individual activists stepped in to fill the roles of banned journalists, international aid agencies and feckless foreign governments. Red Lines tells the story of two such activists, who despite overwhelming obstacles, attempt to establish democratic enclaves in their devastated homeland.