Hedwig and Berti is a saga of the totally unlikely marriage of a grandly Teutonic woman, Hedwig Kessler and her diminutive cousin Berti, two upperclass German Jews forced to leave their homeland during the rise of the Nazis. They flee to London, then to New York City and from there, finally, to a university town in Kansas. In London, Hedwig gives birth to a daughter whose broodingly dark construction and immense genius for the piano point back in time to the tragedy of her bloodline.