Former Polish teenage piano prodigy Mosha Gebert is teaching when the Nazis come for her. They kill her student but she is taken to Majdanek concentration camp. There Commandant Josef Hanke spots her and recognises her as the pianist he fell in love with years earlier. Hanke demands that Mosha play 'Ode to Joy' for him but she refuses. She will never play in such a horrific place - or for such an evil monster. So begins a battle of wills and repeated torture. Even when Hanke causes her to lose her hearing Mosha refuses to play. When Mosha's sister arrives in the camp Hanke tries to use her as leverage but Mosha is steadfast in her refusal to play. Even when her sister is sent to the camp brothel Mosha does not waver. Hanke finally turns his anger on Mosha breaking one of her fingers. She convinces prison guard Elsa to smash the rest of her fingers with a rock. Mosha believes crippling herself is the only way for her to survive and triumph over Hanke but what will this do to him? Will Hanke forgive her? Or will this last desperate act finally push him over the edge?
