A wintry gloom has settled upon Depression-era Winnipeg in Maddin's brew-ha-ha, a joyously stilted comedy wed to the extravagance of a dizzy thirties musical. To dig out from beneath the snowy pall, Lady Port-Huntly (Isabella Rossellini), a bewitching beer baroness, announces a competition to determine which nation possesses the most sorrowful song. Performers from every lamentable land descend upon Port-Huntly's brewery to challenge the world with their doleful strains. Among the maudlin musicians are the American entrant, Chester Kent (Mark McKinney), a failed impresario who adores the lady brewmeister, and his brother Roderick, Serbia's official contestant, mourning the loss of his wife who passes incognito as the frail nympho Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros). These competitors, we quickly learn, are vying for more than the “crown of frozen tears.” Adapted from an original screenplay by author Kazuo Ishiguro, this heady brew floats the bubbly sorrows of individual souls in a frothy keg of universal misery, stirred all the while by Maddin's intoxicating wit.