Pearl Willis, an 18-year-old saxophone player living in 1942 Sydney, is a pretty lucky girl. She plays regularly at the posh Trocadero ballroom and gets to sit in with her brother's band, playing jazz standards and new pieces at some of the hottest underground GI clubs in the city. It's at the Booker T. Washington club that she meets jazz celebrity James Washington, an African American GI who immediately falls for Pearl. When James is shipped out to New Guinea, Pearl has to decide how much she's willing to sacrifice to stay with him.