“Each tone is connected to one of the spheres of the universe,” Stephen told Fredegund and Brother Ingulf that evening in the cellar. “The moon, each of the planets, the sun, and the stars – each one has a string. I wonder if anyone ever got their cythara to be completely in tune with the universe and moved the spheres?”

All Stephen wants to do is dance and play music at village festivals, but as the orphaned son of the last king of Lotharingia, he must obey his tutor and study in preparation for one day restoring his father’s kingdom. When a neighboring king dies suddenly, Stephen is whisked away from his home and deposited in St. Maximinus Abbey in Trier for safe keeping. There, playing music becomes all but impossible as he is forced to spend his days in silence copying manuscripts with a group of elderly monks.

He begins to despair that he will never leave St. Maximinus, until he discovers a manuscript that teaches him how to tune his instrument in accord with the celestial spheres of the universe and manipulate the world around him by playing music. With this newfound musical power, Stephen realizes he may well recover his father’s kingdom and get to play at the St. John’s Day Festival. That is, if the unknown enemy the Abbey is protecting him from doesn’t get to him – and his father’s throne – first.

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