在第二十三届中西部年度钢琴赛上，来自芝加哥的选手保罗虽然表演得十分精彩，但却只得了第三名的成绩。保罗是冲着冠军来比赛的，大家也都认为这个结果有失公平。为了证明自己的实力，不服输的保罗准备参加一个级别更高的比赛--第十九届旧金山西尔曼钢琴赛。
保罗来旧金山并入围组委会选出的十二名选手进入半决赛。就在这时，保罗遇见了多年前就有过合作的富家姑娘海蒂。地位的悬殊使保罗不想与海蒂有更多的接触，但海蒂却从那时起就已经爱上了保罗，只是保罗似乎对她没什么感觉。因为年龄的限制，这是保罗最后一次参加钢琴赛的机会，所以保罗还是不想因接触海蒂而耽误了比赛。
经过激烈紧张的角逐，入围的十二名选手中只有包括保罗和海蒂等六人进入了决赛。当大家都在为最后的比赛加紧时间练习时，进入决赛的俄罗斯姑娘塔迪娅娜却被人绑架。为此，大赛组委会决定比赛延误一周。对其他选手来说这是个好事，但保罗却大发雷霆，他等比赛已经迫不及待了，所以他无法忍受比赛被推迟一周。伤心的保罗找到海蒂，向她倾诉了自己内心的苦闷。在一夜的缠绵后，保罗却从此变得开朗起来，两人也开始一块切磋技艺，度过了一段幸福的时光。
决赛开始了，在第一天参赛的三人中保罗以它精湛的技艺，赢得了全场观众的热烈掌声。第二天，应该海蒂上场时，海蒂为了能让保罗获得第一名而想放弃这次比赛机会。在保罗的一番劝说后，海蒂参加比赛并取得了第一名的成绩，保罗位居第二。梦想破灭的保罗还是按捺不住内心的情绪与海蒂大吵一架后愤然离开，在庆祝酒会上，海蒂很伤心，当她独自一人在舞池中央跳舞的时候，发现保罗已经来到了她的面前。
精彩视点：
本片是一部由音乐来贯穿始终的电影。保罗的饰演者由曾获得过奥斯卡影帝的里查德·德里弗斯扮演。他曾因在1977主演《再见女郎》而获得奥斯卡最佳男主角。后来他又主演过《第三类接触》、《大白鲨》等一系列经典影片。该片女主角艾米·厄弗英曾于1983年成功主演了《杨朵》而获金像奖最佳女配角的提名。

Two bank robbers, Dennis and Hal, are on the run from the police after a successful heist. Needing somewhere to hide the loot, they turn to a funeral parlour where they stash the cash in Hal's recently-deceased mother's coffin. Taking the coffin, they turn to Hal's father and hide it in the bathroom of his hotel. Before long the hotel is host to the eccentric Inspector Truscott.

Marg Duffield (Lee Remick) is the Maine wife of Al (Joseph Sommer) whose daughter Peg (Marlee Matlin) is deaf. Peg's husband is killed in a car accident on the way to visit the Maine house, and the Duffield's take in Peg's six year old daughter, Lisa, while Peg recovers. Since Lisa is a speaking child, Marg thinks of her the way she wanted Peg to be, and seeks guardian custody.
Remick's role is secondary to Matlin's, though she is presented as a tragic figure, particularly as Al refuses to help her plan to gain Lisa. Peg's deafness is said to be from a childhood case of spinal meningitis, and the teleplay by Louisa Burns-Bisogno, with story by Louisa and Tom Bisogno, reduces Remick to a textbook mother who is self-hating from guilt and therefore cannot love her own daughter. In a memorable scene, Peg angrily signs her exit to Marg, since Marg has refused to learn sign language, though Peg has learned to speak for her mother.
The treatment uses the Tennesee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie, for therapy, to help Peg overcome her grief and also Marg `lose her unicorn horn' and embrace her daughter. Whilst Peg choosing to act in this play may seem an odd choice for someone grieving, what is more noticable is that Matlin is far too more glamourous to be believable as Laura. The Bisogno's include Michael O'Keefe as Dan, Peg's deceased husband's best friend and director of Actors Theatre for the Deaf, to offer Peg a new romantic interest, and thankfully she rebukes his protestations of love. Although his opinion may be influenced by his `crush', Dan tells Peg that being different is better than being normal, since the normal ones are as `common as weeds'. This philosophy reads as rather Nietzschean, on the level of artists not being restricted to the common moral code.
Director Karen Arthur either has those signing also speaking or those signing being translated for the audience, though in one scene the sound of lapping waves drowns out the dialogue between Dan and Peg. She also gives Matlin some good moments, one being her scream of horror when she hears the news of the death of her husband, and another when she chases Remick down a flight of steps, hitting her.

Lee Remick stars as Jennie Jerome, born in the United States in 1845, who eventually became Lady Randolph Churchill, and gave birth to Sir Winston Churchill in this seven-part, seven-hour biographical mini-series.

Lee Remick stars as Jennie Jerome, born in the United States in 1845, who eventually became Lady Randolph Churchill, and gave birth to Sir Winston Churchill in this seven-part, seven-hour biographical mini-series.