Fegele (Christina Ricci), a Russian Jewish refugee working in a variety troupe in Paris just before the Second World War, is befriended by Lola, a white Russian exile (Cate Blanchet). Fegele meets Cesar, a gypsy (Johnny Depp) in the world of the opera and they fall in-love. But When the German Nazis invade Paris, Dante Domino, the star of the opera (John Turturro) betrays Fegele, and she has to escape. Under the extreme conditions of war, alliances are formed and broken and questions of identity become matters of life and death.