This story is told by Oscar, a young, bright working class man who has fallen in love with an upper-class Cambridge student, Iris, and thereby become entangled with a group of close friends. The group is led by Iris's charismatic, brilliant, possibly dangerous, brother, Eden -- a musical prodigy who believes he can adapt the theories of a forgotten Baroque composer to heal people. Oscar is persuaded into a series of disturbing experiments to prove Eden's claims. As the partition between genius and delusion blurs, the danger that awaits them all becomes desperately apparent.