In Czechoslovakia in the early 1930s, Zoli, a young Roma girl, is six years old. The fascist Hlinka guards drive most of her people out onto the frozen lake and force them to stay there until the spring, when the ice cracks and everyone drowns. Zoli teaches herself to read and write and becomes a singer, a privileged position in a gypsy company as they are viewed as the guardians of gypsy tradition. But Zoli secretly writes down some of her songs. The war ends when Zoli is 16 and with the spread of socialism, the Roma are suddenly regarded as 'comrades' again. Zoli meets Stephen Swann, a man she will have a passionate affair with. He persuades Zoli to publish some of her work but the clan turn against her and she is exiled forever. She begins a journey that will eventually lead her to Italy and a new life.
