Renowned concert pianist Francesca Cunningham is in the hospital in a close to catatonic state, she conscious but not responding in any form, including not talking, to any stimulus, the reason for her mental state unknown. Her case takes on more urgency after a failed suicide attempt. As such, Dr. Larsen, a psychiatrist specializing in the scientific art of hypnosis, is brought in as part of her medical team, he to get her to respond to questions under hypnosis about her life that brought her to this point, hopefully to find that mental break and thus the appropriate treatment to bring her back to a state of the living. What Dr. Larsen learns is the importance of music and performing and it all as triggers, and the dominance of Nicholas Cunningham, her father's steadfast bachelor second cousin, in her life since she was a teenager when she became his ward following her father's passing. He ended up controlling all aspects of her life from her music tutelage, to her life as a concert pianist, to barring her from any romantic entanglements, all done in somewhat of an emotionally cold and distant manner toward her as a person. With those romantic entanglements, she is asked about the two loves in her life, fellow music student, American Peter Gay, whose musical tastes veered into jazz, and artist Maxwell Leyden.—Huggo