In 1927, 15-year old Mickey Derow leaps into an idling car to escape from the New York cops pursuing him and finds himself en route to Bristol, Tennessee. Mistaken for a "recording whiz", he has been caught up in a hunt for singing hillbillies, though of course he knows nothing about recording or hillbillies or much of anything else. Nonetheless, in that first magic week, his life is saved by Maybelle Carter, his musical instincts are awakened by Jimmie Rodgers and his heart is stolen by 12-year old Ida Valentine whose family hopes to save their farm by recording Wandering Boy. When the Victor producers head back north, Mickey chooses to stay in the south to find more unknown singers that he can make famous... and even more urgently to find the girl who got away. As country music changes and evolves over the next eighty years, Mickey will become one of its greatest record producers; but his love for the lost Ida will haunt his wandering life.