In 1942, after an abundant grape harvest at Quinta das Carvalhas, ten-year-old Theo is rewarded with a promised five-day family trip to Lisbon. The journey expands Theo’s world beyond Pinhão and the Douro villages, and he is overwhelmed by Lisbon’s great architecture and, especially, by the National Museum of Ancient Art, where he fixates on how such beauty can be made.

While at the museum, Theo and his family are drawn into a resonant hall by live music from a string quartet. Theo stands transfixed and leaves the performance in tears, deeply moved by what he later learns is Bach. Returning home, Theo cannot easily “fan the spark” because of limited access to books, recordings, and performances, yet the experience permanently divides his life into “before Lisbon” and “after Lisbon,” and later shapes him into a devoted concert patron and student of musical craft.

The narrative returns to Theo’s time in Golden, where Theo’s long love of the cello helps spark a friendship with Simone, a disciplined graduate student at the University of Golden’s music school. Simone is described as punctual and careful as he walks his cello through the Promenade, stopping each morning at the Chalice for a breve latte before his one-on-one lesson with the renowned Professor Gobelli.

Simone’s seriousness about his craft is reinforced by his full scholarship, his choice of Golden over bigger-city programs specifically to study with Gobelli, and his family’s distant support. Along the way, Simone befriends Tony the bookseller through casual street encounters that become a steady, teasing rapport, and Simone shares Tony’s humor and the “Verbivore” poem in emails home.

When Theo and Simone finally meet at the Chalice to talk music, Simone explains his path to owning his prized instrument: early borrowed cellos, a flawed but affordable purchase, and then his grandmother’s unexpected bequest with the note, “Buy a cello, and play for the angels.” With that money, Simone acquires an 1859 Kriner cello from Munich through his professor’s connection, and Theo surprises Simone with detailed knowledge about cello construction and bows. Simone reveals how carrying the cello everywhere keeps his grandmother’s voice close, and he outlines upcoming performances and a pivotal spring recital where visiting symphony representatives may shape his career; Theo quietly makes a mental note to attend.