[1] The film, mostly musical with very little spoken dialogue, stars Daniel MacIvor as Sid, a man returning home for the first time since his partner Andrew's death of AIDS.
He turns on CBC Stereo's classical music program RSVP just as the announcer is reading a request, submitted by Andrew himself shortly before his death, to play Jessye Norman's recording of "Le Spectre de la rose" from Hector Berlioz's Les nuits d'été.
[2] As the music begins, Sid reminisces about the relationship; after it ends, he calls Andrew's sister in Winnipeg to advise her to listen to the program when it airs in her time zone.
His sister, in turn, notifies other family members and each relives their own memories of Andrew as they listen to the song, creating an extended community of people united in their grief as the shared experience of the music metaphorically collapses their geographic distance from each other.
[1] Norman was so moved by it that she flew to Toronto to attend the screening, at which she held Lynd's hand throughout the entire film.