An aging high school music teacher, Joe Gardner, spent his life dreaming of performing on stage as part of a jazz ensemble. One day he aces an audition with the legendary saxophonist and, returning home, overwhelmed with happiness, falls into a manhole and dies. Now Joe has only one path left—to the Great Beyond—but he slips off the eternal escalator and accidentally ends up in the Great Before. Here, new souls discover themselves, and in future humans, passions, dreams, and interests are born. Joe becomes a mentor to the stubborn soul 22, who for ages has not been able to find her spark and head to Earth.