The Violin Teacher tells the story of Clara, a rigorous violin teacher living in San Francisco. She is an overprotective mother, who keeps a secret from her Asian daughter. Suddenly, 20 years later the encounter with her former student from Hong Kong - now a rising violin star who is in town for a concert - prompts Clara to tell her daughter the hurtful truth. The fact that she kept the secret for so long becomes more harmful to their mother-daughter relationship than the secret itself.