Family history repeats itself when Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) shows up at his expatriate brother’s South American apartment. Tetro (Vincent Gallo) also ran away from his browbeating genius father Carlo (Klaus Maria Brandauer) some years earlier to be a writer. His young brother now has chosen the same right, causing Tetro to remember his unpleasant dealings with a temperamental New York symphony orchestra maestro who happens to be his parent. Together with his common-law wife Miranda (Maribel Verdu), he must reassess his own “genius” and what he has accomplished since escaping the shadow of his famous father. And, he comes to realize he has done little except wallow at a bar owned by friend Jose (Rodrigo De la Sema).