Orleans jazz fame, hearing of 1900's skill, comes aboard to challenge him to a piano duel. After hearing Jelly Roll Morton's first tune, 1900 plays a piece so simple and well known ("Silent Night") that the self-proclaimed inventor of jazz feels mocked. As Morton becomes more determined to display his talent, he plays an impressive tune ("The Crave") that brings tears to 1900's eyes. 1900 calmly sits down at the piano and plays from memory the entire tune that Morton had just played. His playing fails to impress the crowd until his original piece ("Enduring Movement"), of such virtuosity and superhuman speed that the metal piano strings become hot enough to light a cigarette, which he hands to Morton as a gesture of victory. A record producer, hearing of 1900's prowess and knowing that he doesn't want to leave the ship, brings a recording apparatus aboard and cuts a demo record of a 1900 original composition. He creates the piece, inspired by a woman (The Girl) who has just boarded and mesmerizes him. When he hears the recording, 1900 takes the master disc, offended at the prospect of anyone hearing the music without him having performed it live. He then tries to give the master to The Girl who inspired it, but is unable to and breaks it into pieces. The story flashes back to the mid-1940s periodically, as Max (who has left the ship's orchestra in 1933) is seen trying to lure 1900 out of the now-deserted hull of the vessel, because the shopkeeper has revealed that the piano where the record had been found was recovered from the ship. Having served as a hospital ship and transport in World War II, it is scheduled to be scuttled and sunk far offshore. Max manages to get aboard with the recording 1900 made long ago and plays it, hoping to find him out. Max and 1900 finally meet again and 1900 is irremovable about sinking with the ship, being daunted by the immenseness of the world. He feels his fate is tied to the ship, and cannot bring himself to leave the only home he has ever known. Max feels useless that he couldn't save his friend and the two have a touching last conversation. The shopkeeper asks Max how the record got into the secondhand piano. Max indicates that he put it there, and the shopkeeper tells him he