Susan is a public school teacher in Jersey City, NJ. She’s feisty and forward in the classroom, vestiges of the years she spent on stage as a singer and actress.  But that was a long time ago.

 

At a birthday party that her animated Italian-American family throws for her, Susan receives a precious gift: a secretly planned reunion of her mother’s teenage girl group and a song dedicated in her honor. This stirs something unexpected in Susan.

 

Later that night, she sees a vision of her mother at age 15 staring back at her in the mirror.  So begins a series of bizarre and bewitching events that pry open a portal of memory, thrusting Susan into another world…

 

It’s the world of scrappy, working class Jersey City circa 1957. Susan’s mother Angela is in high school, and she and her best friends Vickie and Virginia are plucked from the choir of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church to sing as a trio. They become 'The Carmelettes.'

 

Through the magic of ‘memory travel,’ Susan follows the Carmelettes to their first meetings at the legendary Brill Building and into recording sessions at Columbia’s 30th Street Studios. She even witnesses the beginning of her mother’s and father’s life together as teenagers in love. 

 

When the grip of ambition threatens the simple joy of singing together and the Carmelettes’ story takes a heartbreaking turn, Susan watches as the girls make choices that will alter the group — and each one’s future — forever.

 

Bearing witness to her mother’s tale, Susan finally understands Angela’s life choices. And it’s then that she at last embraces the music she herself carries within and the wholeness she feels when she shares it.