Alena Cherny is a concert pianist through and through. She raised in rural Ukraine, her mother sent her to boarding school in Kiev at the age of nine – a childhood far from home. Following the trauma of Chernobyl and a leukaemia, she relocated to Switzerland, leaving her daughter at home with her parents. Today she is an established artist, and wants to fulfil her heart’s desire: to donate a piano to the music school in the village where she was born. Alena sets off with her instrument on a journey into her past. She visits her mother, the places of her childhood, her boarding school and Chernobyl. Appassionata is a portrait of a strong woman and her passion.