In 1936 Pittsburgh, Boy Willie and his sister Berniece battle over the future of a treasured heirloom: a piano with unique ancestral carvings by their grandfather, an enslaved plantation carpenter. He wants to sell the piano to buy land. She insists that the instrument carries too much history to cast aside. In a home haunted by memories, the issue of whether or not to sell cuts deeply and raises questions about honoring the past or moving into the future.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson died in 2005 after completing ten plays plays chronicling the African-American experience in the 20th century, decade by decade.