Gerard Ploilaux, a seventeenth-century violin enthusiast, makes a rare find in a unique violin that produces the most incredible sound he has yet experienced. Seeking to replace the strings he is driven on a quest that takes him to places few have ventured and he meets people he wished he had not. The excursion leaves him wishing he had not ventured from the familiar sanctuary of his life into terror-stricken realms he did not know existed.