« C’est un poème sur les gens. Ce qu'ils croient et ce qu'ils veulent. Et ce qu'ils croient vouloir Même si peu nombreuses sont les choses sur cette terre. Qui méritent notre intérêt..." Poème de Nathan Zach, extrait du film, lu par Jeanne Moreau.

Danny Cornish, a sort of stateless man who arranges art exhibits, is called from Tel Aviv to Paris with the news that a great uncle has died, in Birobidjan, the autonomous Jewish zone in Russia, leaving him a valuable art collection and the hand of a huge sculpture of a Golem. The uncle's will instructs Danny to find the rest of the statue, so Danny, who speaks no Russian, embarks on a trip that takes him (and the Golem's hand) to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Siberia, fumbling with hotel clerks, taxi drivers, and bureaucrats, following leads, and making discoveries about myth, story telling, art, and hope.