Plot

A young refugee traveling from Russia to America in search of her lost father falls for a gypsy horseman.

In this historical drama with music, a gifted singer (Oleg Yankovsky) from a Jewish village in Russia travels to the United States in 1927, leaving behind his young daughter Fegele (Claudia Lander-Duke). Father has promised his family that he'll send for Fegele as soon as he can, but authorities make life hard for the Jewish population, and Fegele is forced to flee with relatives to England. Fegele is adopted by a British family, which renames her Suzie and raises her with little acknowledgment of her ethnic heritage. As she grows to adulthood, Suzie (Christina Ricci) becomes a gifted vocalist and gets a job singing in a nigh club revue in Paris. Before she leaves England, her adopted family presents Suzie with a picture of her father, still believed to be living in America, and she decides she will go to the United States some day and find him. In Paris, Suzie makes friends with Lola (Cate Blanchett), a Russian showgirl in the market for a rich husband. Lola becomes involved with opera star Dante Dominio (John Turturro), and soon both Lola and Suzie are extras in Dominio's company, managed by Felix Perlman (Harry Dean Stanton). As Lola takes up with Dante, Suzie falls for Cesar (Johnny Depp), a poor but handsome gypsy horse trainer. Suzie soon becomes involved with the handsome Cesar, but their happiness proves to be short-lived when the Nazi war machine begins to roll through France.

A Russian Jewish father emigrates to America in 1923, with a promise to send for his mother and young daughter when he is settled. When his village is burned in a pogrom, his mother is killed and his daughter is separated from other youngsters who make it to the port to emigrate. She ends up on a ship bound for England, where she is renamed Suzie and raised by a British family. Many years later, Suzie's talent for singing and dancing sees her accepted into a Paris dance troupe where she is befriended by Lola, a fellow dancer from Moscow. Cesar, a handsome brooding gypsy who works with the troupe later becomes her lover. Lola pursues Dante, an egotistical tenor who is performing in the area. All is well until the Nazis march into Paris, and Suzie's Russian Jewish background places her in danger. She must decide whether to leave Cesar and her friends and continue the search for her father in America.—Alexander Lum

A young girl and her loving father are separated when he goes to America, intending to send for her. Shortly after his departure, their village goes up in flames, and the girl is forced to go to England, where she takes on the name Suzie, and finds that although she is misunderstood, tormented, and teased, she has one gift: she can sing. The movie follows Suzie through the events of her early life, from when she moves to Paris and joins a dancing troupe, to when she meets flirt and showgirl Lola, to when she falls in love with the gypsy Cesar. In the chaos and mayhem of the beginning of a World War, we witness Suzie's struggle as she is forced to decide between the love of her past to the new love that she has only just discovered.—Katie Vallas