The summer of 1957: Erik, 22, is in a sea of people at the local park watching a touring band in his small hometown for the first time. He is transfixed by the music, yet suddenly sees his future with a singular clarity – he is going to be the next big thing on that stage.
Across town, Margit, 18, also hears the noise from the concert, though it is at a safe distance – her strict religious upbringing means she has never even been to the park, much less listened to any rock bands. As a talented pianist, music for Margit means hymns on the church organ, and the occasional classical recital at the local hotel where she works as a cleaner. But that night, when she hears the strains of guitar music drifting over the rooftops, a curiosity inside her is awoken.
When she sits down at the hotel piano and allows herself to improvise on a melody she heard that night, Erik – the hotel owner’s son – appears in the doorway, dumbstruck; he has walked past this girl a hundred times, but never truly seen her. Now he can’t look away. He insists that she joins his fledgling band.
What follows is a summer of rehearsals and stolen glances, of music that says everything words cannot. Something undeniable begins to grow between them – hidden, dangerous, but impossible to ignore in a world where both their futures have been preordained since childhood.
As the end of that luminous, vanishing summer approaches, they must decide what they are willing to lose, and what they cannot live without.