The film begins with a boy practicing violin in a field until he is interrupted violently by a group of bullies. The boy leaves the town, grows up to become a famous conductor but comes back when his failing health forces him to take a break. Then he accepts a position directing the choir, a job that pits him against one of the bullies from his childhood (who has aged far more gracefully) and an insecure, puritanical pastor. The cartoonish pastor serves as a straw man for the film to mount a facile attack on church morality. This, in my view, was the weakest point of the movie. However, the interaction of the provincial singers with the conductor and among each other is often genuine and touching. To my mind, the ending, with things taken an unpredictable and gratuitous turn, smacks a bit of Hollywood feel good overstatement. But in a less critical mood, I think it could be very uplifting. It is worth noting that it is a variation on the experience Daniel describes early in the movie of conducting or, rather, not conducting his orchestra during a blackout.