Eventually, with the help of a psychiatrist and partly as a result of a blow to the head during a mugging, his memories begin to return, and he realizes that he is the son of a great Jewish Hazzan in Europe.

As memories of his parents, who were murdered in the Holocaust, return to him, he abandons his nightclub career to follow his father's footsteps as a synagogue cantor.

[2] In one crucial scene in the movie, Leo imagines himself ascending the bimah of a ruined synagogue in Europe, singing the ancient Jewish prayer "El male rachamim" in memory of all the Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.

By actually returning to the synagogue as a cantor, the film shows how he is restoring "the sacred music of a vanquished culture to a living Jewish community.

Academy Award-winning cinematographer Boris Kaufman filmed this movie in post-war Berlin, including the remains of the city's Neue Synagogue.