亨利（J·K·西蒙斯 J.K. Simmons 饰）和儿子贾伯利（卢·泰勒·普奇 Lou Taylor Pucci 饰）同样喜欢音乐，但是他们喜欢的音乐却是迥然不同 的两种风格。20多年年，因为对政治的不同意见导致贾伯利离家出走再也没回来过。如今，贾伯利落魄地流落街头，并发现脑部有肿瘤送去医院做了切除手术。但是这颗肿瘤已经彻底破坏了他的大脑，他失去了创作新的记忆的能力，他的记忆永远停留在活在1968年。为了重新走进贾伯利的世界，亨利邀请研究脑瘤与音乐的专家黛安（朱莉娅·奥蒙德 Julia Ormond 饰）来治疗儿子的病情。黛安发现贾伯利对早期的的摇滚乐仍然有感知。但这种迷幻时期的摇滚乐对60多岁的亨利来说简直不能接受，但为了与儿子的沟通，他开始研究起60年代的所有摇滚乐团。
In 1986, the conservative 65 year-old mechanical engineer Henry Sawyer and his wife, the housewife Helen Sawyer, are informed that their estranged son Gabriel Sawyer has a brain tumor by Dr. Biscow and they learn that that he is incapable to form new memories. Gabriel left home years ago when his father had an argument with him because he left the college night to unsuccessfully try to watch a Grateful Dead gig with his girlfriend Tamara and his best friend Mark Ferris and now he is completely disconnected from the world. Henry is compulsively retired by his chief and Helen decides to work to have money to pay Gabriel's treatment. Henry researches but the problem of his son and finds some good results through music therapy and he seeks out Professor Dianne Daley. Soon she discovers that the music from the late 60's and 70's, especially the Grateful Dead, is the key to connect Gabriel to the world. The reluctant Henry, who is also a music lover for from an older period, decides to learn these songs to bond with Gabriel. When a radio broadcasts a contest where the winner will receive a ticket for a sold-out Grateful Dead concert, he insistently tries to contact the radio to get the tickets. He believes they can build a new memory of their love for each other. After multiple tries he gets through and, answered by the trivia question, wins the tickets! They go and connect deeply. Next scene is the dad's funeral where he has asked for that Dead song to be played. Gabriel remembers and groves to it.
