Zoli Novotna, a young woman raised in the travelling Gypsy tradition, is a poet by accident as much as desire. As fascism spreads over 1930s' Czechoslovakia, Zola and her grandfather flee to join a clan of fellow Romani harpists. Sharpened and inspired by reading books, Zoli becomes the symbol of a supposedly brave new world of tolerance in the Soviet Union. But as her fame grows and her skills deepen, the ruling Communists begin to use her for their own purpose...