One-hour-long documentary film broadcast on German TV of the music special "Leonard Bernstein in Salzau, 1987" offers an inside look at the professional world of young conductors and orchestral musicians. Includes excerpts from performances and interviews with various young conductors who came to Salzau in 1987 for an international competition and master class with American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein is shown at work with young musicians, challenging them, but also encouraging and reassuring them. They are given the chance to work with Leonard Bernstein and to go on a concert tour with him. The program ends with an excerpt from Sibelius's Symphony no. 5 performed by the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and conducted by Bernstein's students.