A boiling cauldron of emotions was churning inside of me. I had not felt this way or worn anything like this for a long time. Not since Dominik.

Shaken by the sudden death of her lover, Dominik, renowned violinist Summer Zahova finds her sadness quickly giving way to anger at being left alone. Distancing herself from friends and family, she embarks on a grueling world tour, alleviating her grief through frenzied nights with strangers.

Summer's heartache finally starts to heal when she meets Antony, a mysterious theater director who casts her in his new play and quickly becomes her lover. But when Antony's production begins to lose investors because of its explicitly sexual tone, Summer contacts Aurelia and Andrei, the organizers of a mysterious ball, in the hopes of finding a different kind of stage on which to perform. They present her with the opportunity of a lifetime—one that takes her to the heights of ecstasy, where pain and passion meld into a breathtakingly powerful overture . . .