Eleven-year-old Adam Elgin is an avid baseball player who has been playing the piano since he was four years old.

An orchestra is to be formed in his small elementary school in order to participate in a Gala for the Year of the Child Project. They have teamed up with another small elementary school to expand the orchestra's numbers. All interested students must audition for the orchestra. Adam gets the audition music from the school's music teacher and has a short time to prepare for the audition.

Everybody who plays an instrument, wants to be in the orchestra and so they practice, and practice, and practice for their audition. But on the weekend before Adam's scheduled audition on Monday morning, he gets ill and misses his audition. Two students are chosen, one is to be the alternate, and rehearsals begin.

But a lot is going on to prepare for his school's customary year-end festivities, taking place the last week of school: the winter concert on Tuesday, the play on Wednesday, and the orchestral debut in a dress rehearsal on Thursday, school is closed on Friday, plus the school has started a gigantic fundraiser to help with expenses for the Year of the Child gala. Both teachers and students are "stretched to the limit" in these endeavors.

It is the last day of school before the Christmas vacation, and the first dress rehearsal, but at this first dress rehearsal the two students chosen, fail to perform their best and the dress rehearsal comes to a screeching halt.

Without a reliable pianist, the gala seems unlikely for these two schools. Can the Principal find a suitable replacement that can play without fear of the crowd and the pressures of performing, someone who can take them to the Gala!