Displaced Jewish musicians from Germany, not suspeced of Zionism, find themselves in the ideologically zealous Palestine of 1937.With the prospects of going back to Germany becoming slimmer, and the future of Jews in Palestine being shaky, they try to find condolence in music.The personal differences between the four quartet members are intensified by the division of the novel into different parts, each one the diary of a different quartet member.While the music making and the social surroundings are always present, the book's main merit is in presenting the personal turmoil that people undergo when uprooted from their homeland, especially one that has betrayed them.