Ruben and Lou are two halves of the metal duo Blackgammon — Ruben drums while Lou provides the vocals. They live in an RV as they travel on tour. After one particular show, Ruben begins having trouble hearing. A trip to the pharmacy, in which he can barely make out the words of the pharmacist, provides him with the opportunity to immediately see a doctor. The doctor performs tests on Ruben to overtly negative results. He confides that Ruben's hearing is deteriorating rapidly and that his priority should be preserving what ability he has left. Desperate for a solution, Ruben latches onto the offhand comment that a cochlear implant could potentially fix his auditory impairment to a certain degree, but the cost makes it impossible.
Ruben insists that he must continue to play, but Lou realizes the severity of his situation and appeals to his narcotics anonymous sponsor to find him a deaf community to try and ease his acceptance of hearing loss as well as keep him clean from substance abuse. They find a community run by a man named Joe who meets with Ruben and tells him that his program involves radio silence with the outside world, which Ruben rejects. As Ruben continues to deteriorate, Lou appeals to him in a last ditch attempt by saying that his suffering is hurting her as well as him, ultimately convincing him to return to Joe's program under the condition that she write to and wait for him.
Ruben is initially reluctant to accept Joe's patient yet welcoming community. The other members of the house primarily communicate through American Sign Language, so Joe arranges for Ruben to begin sitting in with a classroom of deaf elementary kids to "learn how to be deaf." Restless most days, Ruben is tasked by Joe to learn how to be comfortable in silence by sitting in a room and journaling when he can no longer sit still. Ruben gradually picks up on ASL and begins connecting with the children in the elementary classroom, primarily through drumming. He develops relationships with the members of the house and begins finding comfort in their deaf lifestyle. As the length of his stay increases, Joe asks Ruben to consider taking a job within their community so that he can continue his living arrangement with permanence, but Ruben is clearly reluctant.
Ruben arranges one morning to sell his drums and sound gear, then eventually his RV. With the money, he returns to the doctor and pays for cochlear implant surgery. He is told afterwards that the implants will be activated in 3-4 weeks. Upon his return to the house, he informs Joe that he has had the surgery performed. Joe disapproves of his decision, reminding Ruben that the members of the deaf community have learned to accept their lifestyle without viewing deafness as a handicap. At Ruben's request to continue living in the house for the weeks leading up to his implant's activation, Joe reiterates that the program is sponsored by a church specifically for housing the deaf and that Ruben's surgery has ultimately ended the arrangement of his stay.
Ruben, now effectively homeless, eventually returns to the doctor to have his implants activated. Upon activation, however, he's distressed to hear that the implants provide a distracting amount of feedback that distorts the sound of all he hears. Nevertheless, Ruben flies to Belgium to reunite with Lou at her wealthy father's house. He is initially greeted by only her father, but she returns later that day for a party being thrown at their house. Ruben and Lou are thrilled to be reunited, but Ruben's mood is dampened that evening when the party proves to provide hellish feedback in his ears. As Lou, who has shifted her singing style from punk metal to a much more vocal-driven genre, sings a French duet with her father, Ruben stands and listens with the other partygoers, conscious of the fact that what he's hearing is only a poor imitation of the truth.
After the party, Lou and Ruben prepare for bed as Ruben suggests the two of them resume their previous lifestyle on the road. This is followed by the uncomfortable realization from them both that they've grown into separate lifestyles since they've been apart. The next morning, Ruben packs his things and slips out the door before Lou wakes up. Walking through the city, the feedback in his ears increases, and he sits on a bench to observe his surroundings. Finally, he removes the external receiver from his head to silence the scene. Observing his now silent surroundings, Ruben finds some semblance of peace.
