In post-Napoleonic Europe, rival secret societies hunt for Beethoven's Tenth Symphony -- for whomever deciphers the intricate mathematics hidden within, gains power over time and space.
Trestan Descaix, Napoleon's best spy, seeks the Tenth's hidden transcripts for Revolutionary partisans. The quest will send him across time, braving horrors from Borodino to Auschwitz, and ultimately to other worlds in a race to decide the course of humanity. Composers living and dead aid or hinder his efforts. Yet a mysterious competitor not only challenges him for the Tenth, but challenges the Enlightenment ideals he's claimed to uphold -- and his betrayals in doing so.