Stephen Teniers, a world-renowned composer and unorthodox Episcopal priest, meets Sera Watie, and they fall in love. Sera is on the brink of being chosen as the key foreign affairs advisor to a leading Presidential candidate. So, how could a relationship between such highly successful people turn out to be problematic? Stephen is of European descent; Sera is of African. As Stephen creates a major musical composition based on the life of Thomas Jefferson – counterpoised with that of Emily Dickinson – historic figures who vividly come to life in the novel, it becomes critical and personal as he and Sera face the troubling strains of race in America, from its founding to current day.