In 1917, Lionel Worthing, a Boston Conservatory music student, meets fellow student David White at a pub, and the two instantly bond over their shared love of folk music before returning to David’s apartment to continue their intimate connection. As their relationship deepens, America enters World War I. Lionel, hindered by his eyesight and thus ineligible for service, returns to his home state of Kentucky when the conservatory closes, choosing to help on his family farm after his father dies suddenly.
1919: Lionel receives a letter from David announcing his return from Europe, a new teaching position at a Maine college, and a department-funded trip across the state to collect folk songs on wax cylinders. David invites Lionel to accompany him and assist in the work. The two lovers reunite and travel together, recording songs from diverse lives and renewing their bond along the way. But their renewed collaboration is short-lived; David must return to his duties, and Lionel plans to travel to Europe. They continue to exchange letters, though Lionel’s correspondence eventually stops after a year when no reply arrives.
1923: Lionel, now living in Rome, tells his lover Luca of his dissatisfaction with singing in a local choir and his decision to take a job at the University of Oxford, a move that strains their relationship. A year later, Lionel works as a conductor for the university choir and becomes involved with student socialite Clarissa Roux, who invites him to meet her family at their country manor. The trip unlocks an avalanche of memories of David, and the relationship with Clarissa ends abruptly when Lionel must return to the United States to comfort his dying mother.
With his family affairs in order, Lionel travels to Maine to locate David, only to be told by a colleague that David died sometime after their last trip and that his department never commissioned the venture. The whereabouts of the wax cylinders remain unknown, and Lionel is advised to contact David’s widow, Belle. Meeting Belle and her family, Lionel learns she knows who he is, shares the story of how she and David became involved, and reveals that David’s death was a suicide linked to war-related shell shock. Belle returns Lionel’s letters and promises to send the cylinders if they can be found. Mourning the loss, Lionel revisits places from his youth and sings the songs that meant so much to him, especially The Unquiet Grave.
1980: Lionel, now an ethnomusicologist promoting a new book, receives a package with the wax cylinders, including one recorded on the day of David’s death. On the playback, David apologizes to Lionel and thanks him for the time they shared, then sings Silver Dagger, the song Lionel sang to David when they first met. The recording brings a final, poignant closure to a lifelong arc of memory, music, and longing.
