In this powerful confessional novel the creator of Lestat and Azriel conjures up another ghost from the pantheon of the undead: the mesmeric and dangerous Stefan - part incubus, part inspiration. The nineteenth-century violinist appears on the street corner in twentieth-century New Orleans, to haunt Triana as she grieves for the death of her husband. Like Anne Rice herself, Triana is one of four sisters of a Catholic family, she is in her fifites, her alcoholic mother died wehen she was fourteen, and her own daughter has died tragically of leukemia. Stefan takes Triana back to Vienna in the early 1800s, where Beethoven was his teacher. In possession of Stefan's precious Stradivarius, Triana herself becomes an international virtuoso and superstar - but always haunted by the fear that her gift may be illusory.