When he takes a job teaching music at a school for troubled boys, Clément Mathieu is unprepared for its harsh discipline and depressing atmosphere. But with passion and unconventional teaching methods, he’s able to spark his students’ interest in music and bring them a newfound joy. It also puts him at odds with the school’s overbearing headmaster, however, locking Mathieu in a battle between politics and the determination to change his pupils’ lives.

Children need positive male role models to learn about gender identity and balance. They also need exposure to both men and women to learn how they work together and enhance each other’s skills.
The story follows a young teacher (Jon Voight) in 1969 assigned to isolated Yamacraw Island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds out that the children as well as the adults have been isolated from the rest of the world and speak a dialect called Gullah and “Conrack” is their way of saying his name “Conroy.”