Austria, 1955. Ten year old Benedikt (Wainde Wane), born as an illegitimate son of an American serviceman from occupying force, lives as an orphan, unloved with his grandparents at the countryside. His big dream is joining the Vienna Boys Choir, because they are planning an American tour. By being part of this tour, he imagines finding his unknown father that doesn't even know about Benedikts existence. A simple melody his mother had sung to him in the past, is everything he's got.
With the support of music director Max (David Rott), a Jew that had returned from the US to Vienna, Benedikt achieves the impossible, but joining the boy's choir is like jumping out of a frying-pan into the fire. There is a bitter competition between the boys – newcomers receive a rough treatment. Talent at its own is not enough, to be admitted in the American tour choir. Benedikt gets friends with Max's father Siegfried (Karl Merkatz), who had survived horrible times of National Socialism. They go out in search together for the family Benedikt never had, because of his mother's early death.