Eleven-year-old Maybelle Lane has been collecting sounds her whole life, but her favorite by far is the sound of her father’s warm laugh, saved on an old phone’s voicemail recording. It’s all she knows of him, really. Her mother just says they are better off without him.

But now, somehow, that laugh is on the radio—his laugh. And when her father announces that he’ll be judging a singing contest in Nashville, Maybelle impulsively signs up. She doesn’t know how she’ll get there, or what she’ll sing. She just knows that if she can stand in front of her father and sing her heart out, he’ll have to love her. Won’t he?

The road to Nashville is littered with bumps and surprises. But that’s the thing with journeys of the heart—you may find more than you went looking for.