Retired opera singer Joachim Dallayrac (van Dam) retreats to the countryside to teach two young singers, Sophie (Anne Roussel) and Jean (Philippe Volter). Although the rigorous training takes its toll on both teacher and students, there is plenty of time for relationships to develop between the three.
L'Orchestre philharmonique de Los Angeles joue le célèbre Boléro de Ravel, et des membres de l'orchestre commentent la musique ainsi que leur travail de musiciens.
Paulina Escobar (Weaver) is a housewife married to a prominent lawyer in an unnamed South American country. One day a storm forces her husband Gerardo (Wilson) to ride home with a charming stranger. She is convinced that the stranger, Dr. Miranda (Kingsley), was part of the old fascist regime and that he tortured and raped her for weeks while she was blindfolded. Paulina takes him captive to determine the truth. Despite attempts by both her husband and Miranda to convince her that he is innocent, Paulina is certain that he is the one, and forces her husband to be Miranda's "attorney" in the "trial" she arranges for him.
American World War II veteran Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is now an exuberant expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend and neighbor, Adam Cook (Oscar Levant), is a struggling concert pianist who is a longtime associate of a French singer, Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary). At the ground-floor bar, Henri tells Adam about his cultured girlfriend. Jerry joins them later, before going out to sell his art.
Intense young "tough" Thomas Seyr is a 28-year-old real estate broker involved in shady business deals. His business partners, Fabrice and Sami, spend much of their time ruthlessly chasing squatters and illegal immigrants out of the buildings they have procured and trying to work their way around government housing regulations. Thomas is born to this kind of work; his father, Robert, is also involved in dodgy enterprises and sometimes calls upon Thomas to beat up people who refuse to pay. Tom shows a protective and defensive attitude toward his father who doesn't always appreciate what his son does for him–so much so that when his father introduces his new girlfriend to Tom, Tom undermines her to her face, and insults her to his father, insisting she is an opportunistic "whore." Later, when he tries to enlist her help to watch over his father, she tells him they broke up due to Robert changing his attitude and she is aware of Tom's backstabbing because Robert told her. Robert by this time is in danger from a Russian gangster, Minskov (Anton Yakovlev) who scammed him out of 300,000 Euros and Tom is worried for his safety.
In 1927, unemployed German-Jewish actor Harry Frommermann is inspired by the American group The Revelers to create a German group of the same format. He holds auditions and signs on four additional singers and a pianist. Naming themselves the "Comedian Harmonists", they meet international fame and popularity. However, they eventually run into trouble when the Nazis come to power, as half the group is Jewish.
Bernard Milan, the second-in-command of France's Counter-Espionage department, is out to discredit his chief Louis Toulouse so that he can supplant him. When a French heroin smuggler who has been arrested in New York claims that the drug smuggling was a secret mission on the orders of French Counter-Espionage (actually on Milan's orders), the resulting bad press reflects on Toulouse, who cannot prove that Milan was responsible. In retaliation, Toulouse hatches a plot to deal with his ambitious subordinate: in a room which he knows is filled with hidden microphones, he sends his assistant Perrache to Orly airport at 9:30AM the next morning, making Milan (who has been listening) believe that Perrache has gone to meet a master spy who will expose Milan's treachery. However, Toulouse secretly instructs Perrache to choose someone at random from the crowd of travelers arriving at that time.
Composer, conductor and teacher Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky struggles against his homosexual tendencies by marrying, but unfortunately he chooses a wonky, nymphomaniac girl whom he cannot satisfy.
Dans les années 60, Mère Augustine dirige un couvent catholique québécois qui abrite une école de jeunes filles. Passionnée de musique, elle a donné aux cours de musique une grande place dans l'enseignement des pensionnaires. Le calme du pensionnat est soudainement brisé par l'arrivée en cours d'année de la nièce de Mère Augustine, Alice Champagne, une pianiste brillante mais une élève turbulente. Et, pour ne rien arranger, le pensionnat est menacé par l'ouverture au Québec de nombreuses écoles publiques gratuites. Mais les sœurs ne comptent pas rester oisives face à la situation.
Le film s'ouvre sur le survol d'une grande forêt. Des oiseaux s'enfuient, effrayés par un bûcheron qui coupe un arbre à la tronçonneuse. Un écureuil volant se rue dans l'une des cavités creusées dans le tronc, qui se trouve être le nid où vient de mettre bas sa compagne. Le père transporte ses enfants un par un sur un autre arbre, mais l'un d'eux lui échappe et disparaît en contrebas. N'ayant pas le temps de se laisser aller à son désespoir, il continue de mettre sa progéniture en sûreté.
Cinquante-huit ans après Fantasia, ce film est composé de huit séquences illustrant huit morceaux de musique classique, interprétés pour la plupart par l'Orchestre symphonique de Chicago sous la direction de James Levine. Chaque séquence est précédée d'une courte présentation par des artistes ayant travaillé pour les studios Disney.
In Berlin at the end of World War II, Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård) is conducting Beethoven's 5th Symphony when yet another Allied bomb raid stops the performance. A minister in Hitler's government comes to Furtwängler's dressing room to advise him that he should go abroad, and escape the war. The film then jumps to some time after the Allied victory, and we see U.S. Army General Wallace (R. Lee Ermey) task Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) with "getting" Furtwängler at his denazification hearing: "Find Wilhelm Furtwängler guilty. He represents everything that was rotten in Germany".
Dans un oratoire du XIII siècle, un orchestre symphonique (formation d'une quarantaine de musiciens) répète une œuvre de Nino Rota (même si le nom du compositeur n'est jamais mentionné). Le représentant syndical de l'orchestre vient prévenir les musiciens qu'une équipe de télévision va venir filmer la répétition, et interviewer les musiciens qui le souhaiteront.