This important tribute to the issei (first generation Japanese Americans) integrates the stories of three people who describe a collective history through their personal memories.
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city.
The story Peter is telling the about a special summer, when he is invited over to summer holiday from bickering parents, to his aunt and uncle in the country.
An extended dream sequence presents a biblical allegory about the creation, downfall and rebirth of humanity, told through a series of surrealistic vignettes and musical numbers.