Frustrated by the Cuban government's response to his music, and after meeting American jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, Sandoval secretly plans to escape to the U.S. Based on a true story.

Circus saxophonist Vladimir Ivanoff suddenly defects from his touring troupe in that temple of "Western decadence," Bloomingdale's. He wins asylum and moves into the crowded Harlem flat of Black security guard Lionel Witherspoon. Although Vladimir learns that life in America can be cold and even painful, he grows to love what seems to him a strange and wondrous land.

"This film reveals the extraordinary stories, told by survivors of North Korea's vast prison camps, of deadly famine, and of every kind of repression. Their experiences are interspersed with archival footage of North Korean propaganda films and original scenes that illuminate the contours of daily life for a people whose every action is monitored, and whose every thought could bring official retribution."--Container.