In 1945, the new Polish Government asked for the heart of Chopin, who was previously buried in Paris. A woman named Paulina Czernika approached the Polish Government claiming to have some love letters from the composer to her great-grandmother, the Countess Delfina Potocka, the only woman to whom Chopin had dedicated any music. The Ministry began a witch-hunt against Madame Czernika. These letters were said to be pornographic, anti-Semitic and thoroughly damaging to the image of the composer as a Polish hero. Czernika supposedly committed suicide on October 17th 1949, 100 years to the day after the death of Chopin. Or was she murdered, and if so, why? Were the letters in fact forgeries? And what was the truth about Delfina Potocka? Tony Palmer’s dramatized film tells the story of Czernika Potocka, probing a veritable mystery in a series of parallel scenes from 1945 and 1845. New light is shed on Chopin himself, not the least in the interpretation of the music brought to life by the beautiful young Russian pianist, Valentina Igoshina.