In the year 1907, Dr. Lily Penleric, a dedicated musicology professor, faces disappointment when she is denied a promotion at her university. Feeling disheartened, she makes an impulsive decision to visit her sister Eleanor, who is struggling to keep her rural school afloat in the mountains of Appalachia. Upon her arrival, Lily uncovers a rich repository of traditional English and Scotch-Irish ballads preserved by the area's isolated inhabitants since the colonial era in the 1600s and 1700s. Motivated by her find, she resolves to document and share these precious songs with the wider world.
With the assistance of a gifted orphan named Deladis Slocumb, Lily embarks on adventures through the remote mountainous regions to gather these tunes. As she delves deeper into the music, Lily becomes intrigued not just by its rugged beauty, but also by the resilience and spirit of the local community as they strive to maintain their lives amidst challenging circumstances. Along the way, she becomes aware of their battle against Earl Giddens, a representative of a coal mining operation threatening their land. Compounding her emotional turmoil, Lily discovers that Eleanor is involved in a romantic relationship with her co-teacher, leading her to confront her perceptions of her sister's choices.
Lily's journey takes an unexpected turn when she encounters Tom Bledsoe, a strikingly handsome war veteran with a passion for music. Although Tom initially holds doubts about Lily's intentions and sees her as an outsider trying to profit from their culture, a connection between them blossoms into a blossoming love affair. Through this relationship, Lily begins to reassess her views on the mountain folk, overcoming her initial biases that they are primitive and uncouth, as well as her judgments concerning her sister's sexuality.
The conflict escalates dramatically when a local young man catches Eleanor and her beloved, Harriet, sharing a passionate kiss in a secluded area of the woods. Later that night, in a fit of rage, two men set fire to the schoolhouse, leading to devastating consequences that leave Eleanor, Harriet, and Deladis homeless, while also consuming Lily's painstaking transcriptions and recordings of the ballads. Faced with the destruction of her work, Lily decides to leave the mountains behind but persuades Tom and Deladis to join her in seeking to make and sell phonograph recordings of their treasured mountain music. As they exit the valley, they encounter Cyrus Whittle, a distinguished professor from England, arriving on his own quest to collect these ballads, thus ensuring their legacy will be safeguarded in line with Lily's original vision.
