Gustav and Alma Mahler in New York City in 1907: He had been invited to lead he Metropolitan opera; his glamorous wife accompanied him into the new world.
Nineteen years his junior, Alma was Gustav's constant companion, occasional soulmate, sometimes his muse, always his caretaker: a woman otherwise restless and unfulfilled. Her husband's life was intensely interior, sporadically alert to others' needs & desires. His energy & her idealism were aroused by new surroundings, but fitfully, he remained a chronic outsider.

Joseph Horowitz's novel is the first account of the Mahlers' tumultuous New York sojourn written by an author steeped in the vibrant musical life of fin-de-siècle Manhattan: a world music capital teeming with fabled personalities.