Concert pianist Staffan Scheja portrays Edvard Grieg in this fully-dramatized film, which has at it's 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.