Mara Solomon is a musicologist, not a detective. She has no idea that she's about to take on a murder case. But everything changes during an accidental visit to the police station. While there she learns that her estranged friend, the harpist Reanne Adastra, has been beaten to death, her body left to rot in the South River. The only clue to the motive seems to be a piece of music, scrawled by Adastra before her death and left behind. The police have no idea what to make of that. But Mara Solomon thinks she knows.