Oran lives on Little Drum, where music is everything. Every islander has a birth instrument and a life song - and the ancestors, called ghasts, linger to hear the music. When the Duchess arrives on the isle of Little Drum, she brings orders of silence, threatening the very soul of Oran's musical community. But then Oran hears of a mythical instrument with the power to manipulate hearts; she must find it and play it to change the Duchess's mind.