A young man's arrival in the isolated, tropical city of Darwin initiates a transformative mentorship with a mysterious Viennese refugee. Paul Crabbe, a teenager with aspirations of musical greatness, seeks out the 'maestro' Eduard Keller to refine his piano technique. As their lessons progress, the narrative explores the friction between Paul's youthful arrogance and the older man's disciplined, tragic history. The story unfolds through Paul's retrospective lens, examining how the rigid structures of classical music mirror the complexities of human experience and the weight of the past.

This novel is widely regarded for its precise prose and its nuanced portrayal of the relationship between a teacher and his pupil. The setting of Darwin serves as a distinct character in itself, grounding the story's intellectual themes in a specific, humid reality. Readers often note the balance between the technical discussions of music and the deeper, more melancholic undercurrents of the maestro's hidden history. The narrative avoids sentimentality, opting instead for a clear-eyed look at the ways in which art can both reveal and obscure the truth of a person's life.