A moving novel about a blind son with a love for music that surpassed sight and gave him a vision uniquely his own. A fortnight after jazz pianist Carl Tyler's funeral, his lover Tamara has one week to go before she leaves New Zealand to return to her native Chicago. His mother Nola wants to solve the mystery of her son's death, to know everything Tamara might be able tell her, so she begins an account of Carl's early life, in the hope that Tamara will remember a clue to what happened at its end. Nola was a dental nurse in the 1960s. Her life revolved around her spotless dental clinic at the local school, the 'murder house' the kids called it. She didn't know it, but by taking an interest in young Brett's bruises, and meeting his father Bernie, her life would be changed for ever.