Moscow, 1936. At the age of 29, Dmitri Shostakovich ranks among the Soviet Union's most eminent composers. His works are performed the world over. But Stalin's Great Purge has been set in motion. Shostakovich's opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' is disapproved by Stalin and the artist denounced by the communist party's publication 'Pravda'. While he is expecting his arrest and execution on a nightly basis, his only defenses are the staunch support of his wife Nita, his faithful friends and his own brand of deadpan gallows humour. And though a stroke of luck saves him from becoming just another victim of the Great Terror, he will be firmly under the thumb of despotism: He is forced to represent Soviet values at a cultural conference in New York City, he is forced to join the Party, and he is forced to constantly weigh appeasement of those in power against the integrity of his music. When ultimately, his 'Fourth Symphony' is allowed to premiere, it's a triumph. And after years of absurd confusion, confrontation and concession, Shostakovich prevails: "Art is the whisper of history, heard above the noise of time."

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