Set in the cabaret world of 1930s Europe, La Paloma is a portrait of a tubercular, Dietrich-like chanteuse named Viola Schlump (La Paloma), who seems destined to end her life as unhappily as she lived it. Enter Isidor, a plump and persistent admirer who pines for the sick songbird. La Paloma recovers and marries him, but treats him callously because she has stopped believing in love. Schmid deftly explores the intricacies and nuances of romantic love in La Paloma, a film as uplifting as it is bitter. As critic Gary Indiana notes, "La Paloma is a story every human person lives at least once. If I return again and again to this early film of Daniel Schmid, it’s because I have lived this story a few times, irrationally, against my better judgment."