Gianni Castiglione has a pleasant, quiet life in Cremona. A luthier'a maker and repairer of violins'he spends most of his time adoring his grandchildren and playing chamber-quartets with the local priest, the chief of police, and a fellow aging luthier, Tomaso Rainaldi. Rainaldi is in thrall to music's myths, particularly the stories about the 'Messiah's Sister, ' a priceless, centuries-old, and possibly imaginary violin. When Rainaldi is brutally murdered and his workroom destroyed, it becomes clear that violins had something to do with his death, and the chief of police needs Castiglione's knowledge of the luthier's world. Following the clues will take the two men deep into musical history