In a small town in Russia in the 1880s, two young but poor lovers are helped by a wise old bookseller.

Impoverished and disabled lovers Fishke nd Hodel dream of life in the big city of Odessa, free from the poverty and stifling old-world prejudices of the shtetl. Made on the eve of World War II, The Light Ahead is at once romantic, expressionist, and painfully conscious of the danger about to engulf European Jews. One of four Yiddish features directed by Edgar Ulmer.—National Center for Jewish Film