Life Inside Out tells the parallel stories of Laura, a devoted mother of three teenage boys, and her youngest son Shane, the family misfit and a disappointment to his father.

When we first meet Laura, she is half-heartedly hosting a scrap booking party for her sister Lydia’s new multi-level marketing business. When she stumbles upon her long forgotten guitar, a gift from her mother and the former passion of her youthful life, she is taken under its spell and soon rediscovers her love for songwriting.

Shane, sullen, earbuds perpetually in his ears, has cut himself off from the activities that his father and brothers enjoy. When Laura impulsively decides to sing at her first open-mic night, she takes Shane along for the ride—an act of both pity and motherly instinct.

Her first performance is a borderline disaster but with Shane’s encouragement, she eventually tries again. Despite her rocky entry into the late night mélange of musicians and unusual characters that populate the open mic nights, Laura starts to blossom and Shane seems oddly at home. Soon, following his mother’s lead and with the help of Youtube and a couple of newfound mentors at the club, Shane begins to discover musical gifts of his own.

Laura’s first brave steps prove to be the catalyst for changing not only her life, but Shane’s, in complex and unpredictable ways.