This is the story of Johanna von Eschenbach, who comes into the world just as her parents' marriage is ending. Overshadowed by her glamorous French mother and her gorgeous, over-achieving older sister, Johanna grows up in a hothouse Europeanized household, incongruously located in a small university town in the American Midwest.
Her mother works as a professor of Art History, while devoting every free moment pursuing her passion as a gifted pianist...