Wealthy music producer Alan James lives with his beautiful 30-years-younger Russian girlfriend Laura, whom he met while he was in Russia on business; they have a three-year-old son. Alan is a music legend, having produced Black music during the '60s and '70s, the golden era of Memphis Soul. They live an affluent life in a sprawling mansion on the banks of the Mississippi in Memphis, Tennessee. Although she is comfortable, Laura feels lonely and isolated. Alan has an estranged adult son from a previous marriage, literature professor Michael, who lives with his wife in Los Angeles. Michael and his father have a complicated relationship marred by disappointment, hampered by jealousy, and fueled by anger. When Michael comes to Memphis for the first time in many years, although he had at first disapproved of his father's young girlfriend, closer to his age than his father's, a painful and dangerous love affair develops between him and Laura. As this forbidden passion deepens in Memphis' bars and bedrooms, Laura comes to an illuminating self-confrontation that will change her soul and life forever.