The great violinist Yehudi Menuhin went to his grave asking himself what was the real story behind the Cremonese violin of the Amatis, the Guarneris, and Stradivarius. Why did Cremona, a provincial backwater in Lombardy, Italy, produce this sublime instrument?<BR>In 1973, during the rise of the Red Brigades and the resurgence of fascism in Italy, Norma Barzman, a blacklisted screenwriter living in southern France, travels to Cremona with her cousin, Henry Myers, the writer of the legendary Marlene Dietrich/James Stewart movie Destry Rides Again. Henry, a natural bon vivant and the love of Norma's life, is nursing his diminished talent in deathly isolation in New York. To bring him back to life, Norma persuades Henry to write his long dreamt-of novel on Cremona.<BR>Their adventure opens a Pandora's box of long-suppressed emotions, and forces each to reassess their feelings towards each other. Importantly, Norma - who becomes entangled with a young violin maker - stumbles upon the mysterious origins of the violin which unveils the suppressed history of Cremona, whose sun-bleached walls hide dangerously threatening secrets, intrigues and the shameful history of anti-semitism in Italy. In doing so, she raises the ire of local fascists, thus putting her life in jeopardy.