Concert pianist Staffan Scheja portrays Edvard Grieg in this fully-dramatized film, which has at its heart complete performances of the Ballade in G minor Op. 24 and String Quartet No. 1 in G minor Op. 27.

Both works were composed during periods of crisis in Grieg?s life and they provide a key to his restless, complex character.

As an old man, in voice-over dialogue, Grieg remembers his life at times of happiness and extremity and these episodes are evoked in a series of flashbacks.