Philip Morahan is a great pianist who can no longer play the piano. At fifty-two he is childless, single, and utterly used up by music. His desperate attempt to retrieve a lost personal life at the expense of his career leads to a roller-coaster of crises and confrontations - with ex-girlfriends, ironic proteges, record magnates and his exquisitely sympathetic new agent. For if Philip is to recover his talent and the power to love he must face his own nature dead on, and then the tragedy that haunts him.