When six-year-old Ruby Bridges is chosen to be the first African-American to integrate her local elementary school, she is subjected to the true ugliness of racism for the first time.

Kelsey honors her late mother by training for a marathon and sharing her journey online. Her posts attract Billy, a grocery worker caring for his disabled mother, Debbie. Obsessed, Billy kidnaps Kelsey and hides her in their attic, controlling her for years. When Debbie discovers the truth, she and Kelsey must fight for survival.

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.