On the deck of a ship sailing from New York to Europe sits Gustav Mahler. He is famous, the greatest musician in the world, yet his body aches, has always ached. While the cabin boy gently but firmly attends to him, he reflects on the past years, the summers in the mountains, the death of his daughter Maria, whom he sometimes still thinks he can see. He thinks of Anna, the other daughter, who is currently sitting downstairs at breakfast, and of Alma, the love of his life, who drives him mad and whom he has long since lost. It is his final journey.