"It was a season of love in the afternoon; of slow time and long caresses, of strawberries…passing from mouth to mouth like the wet, ripe and softly bruised essence of pleasure itself…"

Time has already stopped for Stephen Griffin when he moves into the little house by the sea. Twenty-eight years old and haunted by death, the tall, awkward, shy schoolteacher is content to care for his father in Dublin and let life pass him by. Then a miracle appears: a string ensemble from Venice and, with it, a violinist named Gabriella Castoldi.