 Paul Wooley lives in a pastel-coloured world of seashells and whale songs with his cake-baking wife and their 9 year old daughter, Mary, who delights them with the fruits of her violin lessons. On her birthday Mary gets her own violin and the family get a new neighbour, a middle-aged rocker with a head full of the virtues of valve amps and German mikes. When the Woolys see Bill s flying V and he sees Amy s instrument presumptions are drawn, strings are tightened and a major dischord begins.