Left alone to look after the farm, fourteen-year-old Peter Tilten stumbles on something in the milking barn one cold Vermont night. Needing to know more about his discovery, he seeks out a schoolteacher whose words help him shape what he has found amongst the cobwebs and rafters. FIRST NOTE is a day in the life of a thoughtful young man - and how the quiet world in which he lives welcomes the new sounds he will learn to make on his own.