In April 1945, as Jewish prisoners on a death march from Hungary reach an abandoned barn near an Austrian village, their SS guards vanish, leaving them starving, freezing and helpless while villagers remain divided over their fate. Desperate for food and hope, a former Budapest opera singer among them devises a plan: with fellow inmates and willing villagers, they stage Johann Strauss’s “Wiener Blut” in the barn to earn the means to survive.

Caroline Binder has a nice home, a working marriage, and a chronically-ill heart. Heart specialist Paul Hoffmann promises his patient healing through a new surgical method and keeps his promise. But Caroline cannot do with her new life, because the rhythm of this has been determined by her sick heart for the past 20 years. She feels betrayed about her identity and starts to look at how and why life is worth living.