It is a story about a Russian restaurant, Cafe Astoria, first opens in Shanghai in 1935 by a Russian Jewish exile and a Chinese lawyer in Jaffe Road French Concession, for their common love of Jazz. Together the owners and their guests witness the outbreak of World War II, the birth of the new China, the withdrawal of the KMT to Taiwan and the massive exodus of millions of Shanghai's foreign and Chinese residents first to Hong Kong and finally to Taipei. In each of these cities a new Cafe Astoria opens as the original owners are forced to move, again and again, thrown from place to place by wars and crises. The world around them is in turmoil, but inside Cafe Astoria it's always warm, full of charming people and their stories.
