Beat is given a chance to shine when she is appointed dean of Turalong Music School, but her role is not what it seems. Fine-tuning this institution is like playing a cracked violin with broken strings. She's determined to revive the school's reputation despite gender bias, staff conflict, fraud, betrayal, a famous composer's ghost and a predatory university. Beat loves the wild mashes of sound: trumpets, electric guitars, flutes and saxophones which blaze all day and night - indeed the book has its own soundtrack - but she's barely able to keep the school together, let alone her home life on her beloved hobby farm. Keen to unify her squabbling colleagues from opposite musical traditions, she puts a fresh spin on programming to show audiences something new: a combined Beethoven and rock festival. Music or politics? What will be her magnum opus?