Toma Alistar is a gifted lăutar who works as the leader of a traveling gypsy band, wandering the steppes of the mid-nineteenth century Bessarabia. He is a skilled violinist whose fame takes him on tours around European capitals and royal courts. He falls madly in love with the beautiful gypsy Leanca. However, she is marrying a rich Hungarian. Toma spends the rest of life and his fortunes in a desperate search for her. And only before his death he meets an old gypsy woman in whom he recognizes his one true love.