Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.

Two life stories. That of Malou, a French woman, married to a German Jew, a refugee stranded in South America: a picture of the pre-war generation reflected in the unusual destiny of an individual woman. And that of Hannah, an alert, independent, modern woman, seeking after freedom and her own identity, and trying in present-day Berlin to save her shaky marriage.

Jewish and Christian music merge in this film about one of the oldest choirs in Germany, the choir in Magdeburg Cathedral, which has been performing together with the head cantor of the Jewish community in West Berlin, Estrongo Nachama, since 1980. The choir already existed when Walther von der Vogelweide celebrated Christmas here; the cathedral has survived devastation and wars, most recently the bombing of Magdeburg in January 1945. The choir sings "Oh, how the city lies so desolate, which was full of people". The choir now rehearses and sings together with Estrongo Nachama.