A poverty-stricken, nineteenth-century guitar virtuoso navigates the tricky political landscape of Parisian society as he comes out of retirement for one final concert. A sessional instructor competing for the prestigious interdisciplinary Chair in Aretha Franklin studies gets sidetracked by her obsession with a mysterious student in a yellow hat. A dying doo-wop DJ and his wife try to bridge the estrangement wrought by illness as they travel to the Caribbean in search of the horns, drums, and vocals of highlife. In the eleven stories that make up ""The Doctrine of Affections"", Paul Headrick takes us on a fascinating journey into the heart of music. Examining an array of musical genres, and the humans that love and play them, Headrick's stories question the subtle differences between hearing and listening, and communicating and understanding. Whether through the perfectly honed descresendo of a symphony's string section, or the down-home chord progressions at a late-night kitchen party, Headrick's characters grasp at the intangible and try to articulate the inexpressible, making indisputably beautiful music in the process.