In New York, the musician Udo Lindenberg discovers the suitcases of Jewish German artists who had emigrated overseas during the Nazi regime. In these suitcases, he finds sketches of musical scores, yellowed musical lyrics, and even finished songs. On the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II, Lindenberg develops the vision of a large stage show: The forgotten songs are revived in a performance by Lindenberg and his Panikorchester and with the help of the bar girls Ellen and Nathalie and the illustrious crew of the ship. Furthermore, the old purser, played by Horst Buchholz, tells stories of Atlantic passages during the 1930s, of the emigrants and their individual fates.