A boy of sixteen who lives with his beekeeper father and moved too frequently to have a piano at home, a young woman of twenty who hasn't been able to play since her mother's sudden death when she was thirteen, a music school graduate turned salaryman who is barely under the age limit at 28, a 19-year-old Juilliard student whose musicality and perfect technique make him the favorite to win... these and other geniuses gather for the Yoshigae International Piano Competition in this novel about talent, destiny, and struggling against oneself.