Film composer and fading pop star Sir Peter Pilger struggles to redeem his career by delivering a classical Requiem to celebrate his college centenary. Freighted in as High Master to attract celebrity interest, the former student revolutionary sows chaos in his alma mater St Jude's, neglecting his hypochondriac wife and ungovernable teenage kids to turn upside down the institution he's meant to rescue. As he fights to stay afloat in this ship of fools, a young cellist arrives carrying compromising secrets from his lurid past. With a specially commissioned Requiem, the film sees classical music stars rub shoulders with gypsy musicians and gorgeous dancing girls in a unique fusion fit to raise the dead.