Clive Wearing was a renowned conductor and musician until 1985, when a herpes virus attacked his brain and destroyed his ability to form new memories, leaving him stranded in a present that resets every seven seconds or so. Doctors saved his life but could not undo the damage, and decades later he still cannot recall what happened moments earlier, keeping a diary of repeated entries insisting he has just woken up for the first time. The film follows his life now, decades on, showing the two things that survive intact: his recognition of his wife Deborah, who has cared for him and become his memory by proxy, and his ability to sit at a piano and play with full fluency, his hands remembering what his mind cannot hold onto. Interviews and footage of daily routine build a picture of amnesia more severe than any other documented case, and of a marriage and a musical gift that keep functioning inside it regardless.