After an unwanted past, Claire strives to create something that will last as an artist among Nashville's elite society in the 1860s.

A master violinist trained in Vienna, Rebekah Carrington manages to wheedle her way into an audition with the newly formed Nashville Philharmonic. But women are "far too fragile and frail" for the rigors of an orchestra, and Rebekah's hopes are dashed because the conductor bows to public opinion. Nationally acclaimed conductor Nathaniel Tate Whitcomb is Nashville's new orchestra leader, and despite a strange buzzing and recurring pain in his head,...