A 10 year old gifted boy wants to be a jazz pianist much to the chagrin of his more classical oriented piano instructor. With his mothers help, he is an underage regular at a local nightspot, where he is teamed up with a sax superstar. Both come to learn that each suffers from Tourettes Syndrome (thus the film title). The older man has developed mannerisms to cover up his own fallibilities and resents the boy and his mothers acceptance of the disease.