Earl. profiles the inspiring and complex life of an unknown and brilliant American composer who was born into abject poverty and ascended through grit and determination to teach at Princeton for 15 years, and Harvard for 23 years. Earl Kim (1920-1998) lived many lives. He served his country as a US Army Air Force combat intelligence officer in World War II. He earned the rank of Captain and a sharpshooter. Despite his patriotism, Earl faced harsh racism and even threats upon his life. He flew over Nagasaki one day after the atomic bomb was dropped, exposing himself to massive radiation. When he returned home, Earl stood up to McCarthyism refusing to sign The Loyalty Oath--and was fired by UC Berkeley as an instructor. He went on to a storied career teaching at Princeton and Harvard. The film reveals for the first time a meeting between Samuel Beckett and Earl Kim. In 1965, Earl Kim visited Beckett in Paris, and convinced Beckett (who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969) to allow the writer's literary texts to be set to the composer's music resulting in an innovative, daring, and startling form of composition that includes chamber music, dance, song, and even film. Today, Earl Kim's music has been compared to Stravinsky, Bartok and Schoenberg. Earl's story defies categorization: it crosses boundaries from classical music to politics, education, cultural self-awareness (Earl was married three times, all to women who were white), war, human rights, and even weapons of mass destruction. In 1981, the composer co-founded with his wife, "Musicians Against Nuclear Arms" and ran the organization for four years. Most of all, it is a story of the profound power of music to change lives.