Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) meets Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) one night in New York City and she becomes pregnant. Lyla never has a chance to tell Louis he is the father. She intends to keep the baby until she is in a car accident. After she awakens from the accident, her father tells her the baby was born but died. In reality he was given up for adoption and took on the name August Rush (Freddie Highmore). Like his musician parents, August has great musical talent. He refuses to believe that his parents don't want him and escapes the orphanage to go searching for them, believing it will be his musical talent that will eventually bring his mother and father back to him.