Distant Music

On a snowy night in an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Connor, Maeve and Dev meet, each agonizing over an irrevocably life-changing decision. Connor, a seemingly cynical Irish-American law professor, has spent much of his life looking for something to believe in, but he's been repeatedly disillusioned, by his faith, the law, and, finally, love. Tonight may be his last chance as he mulls over the prestigious judgeship he's been offered and, far more importantly, the fact that the woman he has always loved, Maeve, a nun, may suddenly be available if she decides to perform a baptism for the child of two gay men in her parish. Dev, the bartender, is an unsettled Irish immigrant whose easy humor and tall tales mask his own dilemma: should he buy the local fish and chips shop with his brother and return to Ireland or admit that America is now his home? The three fight over religion and beer, whether truth exists at all, the differences between the Irish and Irish-Americans, the many failings (according to Dev) of the latter, and, finally, the capacity of stout to explain, metaphorically and metaphysically, most of life. As the evening unfolds, each is eager to tell the others exactly what they should do with their lives and equally resolved not to discuss his or her own. Ultimately, Maeve's determination to force Connor to confront their feelings for each other, and Dev's weakness for eavesdropping on them through the heating vent, bring all three face to face with their futures.