The Mozart Question is the story of Paolo Levi, a violinist, and how he discovers the truth about his parents and how music came to mean something else for them. On the eve of his fiftieth birthday, preparing to play Mozart, Paolo tells the story of his parents when they were young, as Jewish prisoners of war, forced to play Mozart violin concertos for the enemy: how they watched fellow Jews being led off to their deaths and knew they were playing for their lives.