Venice, 1710
Ten-year-old Agata’s world is shaken at the sudden death of her mother. Left only with her capricious father, a working musician in Venice, her ailing grandmother sends her to the Ospedale de la Pieta, hidden from everything she’s ever known.
Agata auditions for the conservatory style music school where music is both salvation and spectacle. Hidden behind ornate metal grates, adorned with poinsettias in their hair, the singers are veiled in mystery, their ethereal music drawing noble audiences, including gilded young men who see them as treasures—not only for their sound but as coveted marriage prizes.
But just as she reaches the height of her musical journey, a marriage proposal from someone outside the audience tempts her with the promise of a new life—a return to the old neighborhood she’s longed for and a home she barely remembers. Torn between the music that has defined her and the hope of belonging to a family, Agata must confront the most profound question of her life: is her purpose rooted in the music that shaped her, or in the love that might free her?
