When musicologist Doctor Lily Penleric, played by Golden Globe Award winner Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds) is passed over a prominent teaching position, she leaves the city to visit her sister in the beautifully rugged mountains of Appalachia. It is here she discovers a wellspring of emotional tunes passed down from the original Irish and Scottish immigrants who settled in these parts. Determined to document the history of the songs, she immerses herself in mountain life, falls in love with a local musician, Aidan Quinn (Practical Magic), and is profoundly changed by the generosity, strength, and freedom of the fiercely proud mountain people.