A historical novel, tracing the fictional lives of a musical traveller family in Germany during the second world war and a divided Berlin thereafter. It is Berlin 1938 and while the Nazis are gradually terrorising the street, Ileana and her brother Anjush are playing at Der Bunte Brunnen, where the cabaret goes on. But as the war rages and the allies converge on the city, the elimination programme intensifies and Ileana faces unbearable choices. Thirty years later in the divided city her granddaughter finds Ileana's long buried clarinet and gradually uncovers the truth not only about her grandmother but also about the strangely glowing instrument and the power of its music.