A fortnight after jazz pianist Carl Tyler's funeral, Tamara has one week to go before she leaves New Zealand to return to her native Chicago. Nola wants to solve the mystery of her son's death, to know everything Tamara can tell her, so she begins to tell Carl's lover about the time surrounding her son's conception, his childhood and his early love of music, in the hope that Tamara will remember. Nola is a dental nurse in the 1960s, living with her colourful mother Peg. Her life revolves around her spotless dental clinic at the local school, the 'murder house' the kids call it. She doesn't know it, but by taking an interest in young Brett's bruises, and meeting his father Bernie, her life will be changed for ever. Forty years later, Nola has long since left dentistry behind. She reads palms now, fortune-telling. At the funeral of her son Carl, Nola tells Tamara, Carl's blind American girlfriend, about that time long ago, when she first met Bernie and her son was conceived. The son who was blind also but with a love for music that surpassed sight and gave him a vision uniquely his own.