Yasha Mazur, [Alan Arkin], is a turn-of-the-century Jewish stage magician, a notorious womanizer, a con man, and a mystic who dreams of defying gravity. He tours the western edges of the old Russian Empire, chasing a risky fantasy of flight. Married to Esther, [Linda Bernstein], he spends little time at home in Lublin, and the couple have not been able to have children. His confidants and lovers include Zeftel, [Valerie Perrine], and Magda, [Maia Danziger], who travel with him on the road. The great loves of Yasha’s life are the aristocratic yet penniless widow Emilia, [Louise Fletcher], and Emilia's daughter Halina, [Lisa Whelchel], whom he regards as a daughter. Halina is ill and in need of medical care, and Emilia knows Yasha cannot provide the money for her treatment, so she keeps herself free to marry someone who can fund Halina’s cure.
Yasha’s big break finally seems within reach when he convinces his manager Wolsky, [Lou Jacobi], that he can actually fly. Wolsky books him for a prestigious engagement at the Alhambra theatre in Warsaw. Yet trouble arrives in the form of Zeftel’s departure—she claims she’s headed to America, but she’s really bound for a pimp who intends to sell her into sexual slavery. To save Zeftel, Yasha stages a dazzling show of magic and card tricks for the pimp and parts with money.
The next morning, the truth comes crashing down. Yasha had attempted to burgle Count Zaruski’s home to obtain the funds Emilia needs to take Halina to Italy for treatment and to secure Emilia’s hand against the Count, but the plan unravels after a violent vision haunts him. He discovers that Magda has killed herself, and the blow to his career and to his family life leaves him emotionally hollow. He returns to his rooms, broken, and is confronted with the shattering sense that he has lost Emilia and Halina.
Fully collapsed, Yasha retreats to a brick hut, living like a recluse with only a small window to receive food and to dispense blessings as a holy man. Wolsky arrives with Emilia, who begs his forgiveness and asks him to pray for her. She is now the Countess Zaruski, and Halina has been sent to a sanatorium in Italy for care. The couple’s reunion is tempered by distance, and the hut becomes a shrine of quiet study and prayer.
Another visitor comes in the form of a widowed woman, veiled in mourning, who has heard of the holy man in the brick hut. She is Elzbieta, [Shelley Winters], come with Bolek and friends to seek blessing—and to avenge Magda’s death. Elzbieta’s anger and grief sharpen as she unveils herself, and a battering ram is brought to the hut. The walls finally collapse, and Yasha is nowhere to be found. The assembled crowd stands in stunned confusion, until a strange omen appears: a skein of geese fills the sky, and one brave goose seems to chase after the others, as if guiding them away from the wreckage.
