The fourteen stories in "Where Words Leave Off Music Begins" dramatize ways in which music seizes peoples' lives and never lets go. In "Perfect Match" twice-divorced Bernadine seeks passion in piano playing. In "Recapitulation," while fleeing a peaceful anti-Nuke rally turned violent, Amelia reflects on her early years as a piano prodigy and contemplates what might have been. Chloe, in "Why I'm Calling 911," has put off her music career to raise her son Matthew but yearns for the work she has postponed. Nine-year-old Michael, "The Prodigy" is raised by working class, elderly parents who can't fathom his musical world. After two mental breakdowns and twenty years of retirement from the concert stage, Phyllis returns to the piano in quest of the quintessential "Tone." In seeking musical excellence, these characters experience frustration and disappointment, but also ebullient joy.