Two pianists are returning from a concert debut together in Napoleanic France when one gets tired of the other’s gloating after his superior performance and he runs the cart off the road. The better, and more vain of the two suffers brain damage and dies, while the poorer pianist suffers severe damage to his hands. The father of the love interest of the better pianist is also a surgeon with a fierce love of music, and a great interest in contributing to the field in his own way. He proposes a grizzly solution to the survivor’s situation.