While teaching a master class at an elite music conservatory, blind violinist and amateur sleuth Daniel Jacobus gives an extra lesson in how to catch a killer.

When the Kinderhoek Conservatory of Music in Upstate New York has a last-minute cancellation for its "Going for Baroque" festival, they call on virtuoso violinist Daniel Jacobus to sit in on panels and teach a master class. While his expertise in musicology is as noteworthy as his roster of former students, the reclusive curmudgeon's brusk manner is a shock to the gentile Kinderhoek community. But not nearly as shocking as murder.

When a renowned faculty member dies of apparently natural causes, Jacobus's finely attuned ear alerts him to the fact that something is terribly amiss. As he roots out false notes and false claims among the students and faculty, he soon discovers that beneath their civil tone is a secondary theme of harassment and deadly corruption.