The History of Sound 2025

In 1917, New England Conservatory music student Lionel Worthing Paul Mescal meets fellow student David White Josh O’Connor at a pub, and the two instantly connect over a shared love of folk music before retreating to David’s apartment for a night that hints at something deeper. As their bond deepens, the United States enters World War I, sending David to the front while Lionel returns to his home state of Kentucky as the conservatory closes. He sets his musical ambitions aside and helps on the family farm after his father dies suddenly, carrying with him a quiet ache and a sense that life has nudged him onto a different path.

In 1919, Lionel receives word from David about his return from the war, a job at a Maine college, and a department-funded journey across the state to collect folk songs on wax cylinders. David invites Lionel to join and assist, and the two reunite on the road, crisscrossing the landscape to capture voices from a diverse array of people. The work rekindles their relationship as they share discoveries, swap stories, and build a memory archive of tunes that feels as vital as the bond between them.

The voyage eventually leads to a parting landscape: David must return to his duties, and Lionel contemplates a future in Europe. They rely on letters to stay connected, but over time the correspondence fades and the distance between them grows, leaving Lionel with a longing that won’t easily be quieted.

By 1923, Lionel, now in Italy, tells his lover Luca that he has taken a post as conductor at the University of Oxford, a move that ends their relationship on terms colored by distance and unresolved emotion. A year later, Lionel serves as conductor for the Oxford choir and becomes entangled with Clarissa Roux [Emma Canning], a socialite who invites him to meet her family at a country manor. The encounter dredges up memories of David, and Lionel feels pulled back toward the life they shared. The liaison with Clarissa ends when Lionel must return to the United States to comfort his mother.

After tending to family matters in Kentucky, Lionel travels to Maine to search for David, only to learn from a colleague that David died sometime after their trip and that the department never commissioned their work, leaving the wax cylinders unknown. The colleague directs Lionel to David’s widow, Belle [Hadley Robinson], who reveals she knows who Lionel is, explains how she and David became involved, and shares that David’s death was a suicide. Belle returns Lionel’s letters and says she will send the cylinders if they can be found. Lionel mourns by revisiting David’s favorite places from their youth and by playing the songs that first drew them to each other, letting the memory of their music carry him through grief.

In 1980, Lionel—now an ethnomusicologist—is promoting his latest book when a package arrives containing the wax cylinders, including one made on the day of David’s death. On the recording, David says he has felt completely lost since fighting in the war and softly sings “Silver Dagger,” the haunting folk song that had drawn him to Lionel in the first place, a final note that ties their story from youth to old age.