Told in alternating voices, the teacher and students in room 117 find their lives changed over the course of a school year.

Seventeen-year-old Claire Alalay likes herself best when she plays her father's old piano, a welcome escape from the sadness of missing him - and from her traditional Filipino mother's prayer groups. After placing third in a local competition, and with hopes of earning a college scholarship, Claire auditions for Paul Avon, a prominent piano teacher, who agrees to take Claire as a pupil. Soon Claire loses herself in Paul's world and his way of digging...