Epstein first introduced Leib Goldkorn in "The Steinway Quintet". In this volume, Goldkorn - Holocaust survivor, flautist, and pianist - is back in an expanded account of the original novella along with two other long tales that continue his richly comic spiral of misadventures that are at once comedies of manners and serious accounts of culture colliding with casual violence.

After a trip home to Moravia reveals that his father is not a businessman but actually a great composer, unsuccessful musician Leib Goldkorn returns to New York to launch a production of his father's opera "Rubezahl" to disastrous results.