A magical red violin passes around the world from owner to owner. It originates in Italy, where its maker's wife dies in childbirth; next it surfaces in the eighteenth century as the instrument of a child prodigy. In the nineteenth century, we find ourselves in England, where the violin's owner, a composer, is having a passionate affair. Finally, it is taken to 20th century China, where it must be hidden to prevent its destruction by Maoists.