When a brilliant young violinist dies in a horrific accident, Madame Karitska has only to hold the victim's instrument in her hands to perceive the shocking truth. But when an insecure wife asks whether her husband will abandon her to join a sinister cult, Madame Karitska, as wise as she is lovely, chooses not to reveal all that she foresees. And when an attache case is suddenly dropped into her lap by a man fleeing a crowded subway, she knows it's time to consult her good friend Detective-Lieutenant Pruden. A nine-year-old accused of murder, a man dying a slow death by witchcraft, for the hunted and the haunted, Madame Karitska's shabby downtown apartment becomes a haven, where brilliant patterns of violence, greed, passion, and strange obsessions mix and disintegrate with stunning, kaleidoscopic beauty.