The people she meets along the way are also trying to survive, each in his or her own way. And each is a foreigner, an outsider, someone on the move. But the threat of war raises the stakes. Survival issues become matters of life and death. The story is partly told through music, from the soaring tenor arias of Italian opera to the haunting, rhythmically charged music of the Gypsy people.
Music holds a key place for all immigrants, all people on the move.
A voice in song can express truth and longing more clearly than in everyday language. The longing to be connected, the longing to transcend pain and oppression, the longing for joy and for love. The year is 1927. But with the ever-present threat of persecution, her father leaves for America to find work and then send for his family. Soon after he leaves, violence engulfs the village.