Thirty years ago, Andrei Simoniovich Filipov, the renowned conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra, was fired for hiring Jewish musicians. Now ekeing out a living as a cleaner at the Bolshoi, he learns that the Châtelet Theater in Paris has invited the Bolshoi orchestra to play there. He decides to gather together his former musicians and to perform in Paris in the place of the current Bolshoi orchestra. Set to accompany his old Jewish and Gypsy musicians, Andrei wants Anne-Marie Jacquet, a young virtuoso violinist.
