At age 16, during a year marked by the loss of both his parents, Paul received not a birthday card, no condolences, only a letter from his grandfather that was written by Wolfgang Pauli, a physicist in the 1930's. Twelve years later, in the midst of a crash-and-burn Brooklyn rock star experience, Paul suddenly returns to his grandparents house to confront all that was left unsaid, disrupting their carefully constructed tranquility in the process. Dear Radioactive One investigates the language gap between scientist and musician, between grandfather and grandson, and begins to fill it in word by word.