After spending eight months in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.

When reporter Jean Craddock interviews Bad Blake — an alcoholic, seen-better-days country music legend — they connect, and the hard-living crooner sees a possible saving grace in a life with Jean and her young son. But can he leave behind an existence playing in the shadow of Tommy, the upstart kid he once mentored?

The Narrator (Woody Allen) tells us how the radio influenced his childhood in the days before TV. In the New York City of the late 1930s to the New Year’s Eve 1944, this coming-of-age tale mixes the narrator’s experiences with contemporary anecdotes and urban legends of the radio stars.