In Ritchie?s second novel we are presented with a rich tapestry of interwoven storylines. We are rhetorically asked to consider whether musical performance is technique or passion; how we are shaped by our surroundings and ultimately, what price we are willing to pay to fit in. What was it about a performance more than 50 years ago that launched the singing career of the great Margaret Calloway. How does a farm girl from rural Ontario manage to perform Handel?s Messiah with such depth and authority that it becomes the standard by which all other renditions are measured?