This exploration of the critical relationship of music, healing and survival centers on the music of composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). Christoph Eschenbach, music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, reveals that music helped him recover from the trauma of World War II; Dr. Richard J. O'Reilly of Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center details how Mahler's work is being used as part of an innovative therapy to help patients and families learn to heal and hope; and Dr. Balfour Mount, who coined the term "palliative care," discloses how music gives him courage as he battles his own cancer. Eschenbach conducts students from the Curtis Institute of Music in Mahler's First Symphony. Actor Richard Dreyfuss provides the voice of Mahler and actress Kathleen Chalfant narrates.