Fortunately for Fievel he was saved from drowning by being ensconced within a bottle, which quite by chance floats to New York, USA. However, during a violent storm, little Fievel Mousekewitz (voiced by Phillip Glasser) becomes separated from his parents and sisters. Travelling to Germany, they board a ship bound for America.

They dream of a land known as America, where there are no cats. Ex-Disney animator Don Bluth brings us a tail (sorry, TALE! Well, that's the proper word in the context!) of the Russian Mousekewitz mouse family, who, like all of the other mice in late 1800's Russia, want to escape from the cats.