1982. Sean Gallagher, a talented musician leaves the west coast of Ireland to work for his Uncle’s construction firm in Chicago. All goes well until he is forced to flee for his safety after a run-in with a local protection racket. Reduced to busking on the streets, his life continues to spiral downwards when his violin is stolen, followed by an epileptic attack that lands him in hospital.

While recovering, Sean has a potent encounter with the terminally ill Charles Peccatte, a wayward if remarkably insightful pianist and composer, who is in the desperate throes of trying to finish the last movement of his piano sonata.

The death of Charles launches Sean on a quest to discover the whereabouts of the first two movements of the sonata – a journey that takes him down the Mississippi and eventually to Marion Landray, Charles’s estranged, reclusive wife. What ensues is a life-changing encounter for both, that will unearth far more than the music.