Based on the career of Metropolitan Opera star Olive Femstad this novel traces the life of Thea Kronberg, a singer who leaves small-town Colorado to go to Chicago to study music, where she rises to the top of her profession. After a turbulent life that includes the death of a lover, exploitation by a teacher, and a passionate affair with a married man, Thea finds happiness--but her truest happiness, throughout, comes from her career as a singer.