A promising classical musician finds his life poisoned by a music hall dancer -- and by the strange gaps in his memory.

George Harvey Bone is a composer in early 20th century London, who is under stress because he is writing a piano concerto. Due to this stress, he gets blackouts whenever he hears dissonances. When he finds himself after the blackout in a different quarter of the town, he returns home, to read in the paper that somebody in that quarter was murdered. Asking help from a doctor at Scotland Yard he is assured that he has nothing to do with it, but he is advised to cut back in his work and get some relaxation like other, ordinary people. At a cheap musical he meets Netta, a singer, who inspires him for a new motif for his concerto. But Netta discovers that this motif could also be used as a song for her. The song gets sold, and she hangs around George to get more songs out of him. George believes that Netta is in love with him, and gets in an argument with his girlfriend Barbara, the daughter of Lord Henry, who wants the concerto for one of his soirées. George has another blackout, and after recovering he hears that Barbara was almost strangled to death. He starts working again on the concerto. On London's special holiday he learns that Netta, who offered him quite a lot for a new song, is going to marry theatrical producer Carstair, and he causes some violins to fall in his room, and this sound drives him to another blackout.—Stephan Eichenberg <[email protected]>

In the early twentieth century London, musician George Harvey Bone, who lives in Hangover Square, is in the process of composing a piano concerto. In his admiration, Sir Henry Chapman hopes George will complete it in time for what will be the latest musical soiree Sir Henry hosts at his home so as to bring greater recognition to George's body of work. Sir Henry is to lead the orchestra and George who will play the piano himself for that inaugural performance. George of late has had periods of lapses of memory i.e. blackouts, the latest, the longest thus far, this one lasting a day, in which he fears, based on circumstantial evidence including a bloody dagger in his possession, that he may have been the perpetrator of a publicized murder in Fulham. Wanting to do the right thing and wanting some help for what plagues him, he voluntarily goes to see Dr. Allan Middleton at Scotland Yard, who, based on that evidence, is able to clear him of that murder, and suggests that the stress of writing the concerto may be the cause of his blackouts. Taking Dr. Middleton's advice to relax, George goes to a bar hall where he meets singer Netta Longdon in she performing there, he abandoning the concerto temporarily to write the music for songs for her in his infatuation, she only stringing him along for those songs to further her career as in reality she finds him and his world of classical music a boor. While George is blind to Netta's end goals, Sir Henry's daughter, Barbara Chapman, an accomplished pianist in her own right, can see what is going on in her own attraction to George. The question becomes what will happen when other stressors lead to more of George's blackouts, especially the ones after he discovers Netta's true nature.—Huggo

London, early 20th century. George Harvey Bone is a very promising musician, who is working on a concerto that is likely to fulfill that promise. Sir Henry Chapman, a distinguished conductor, wants to perform it at one of his soirées, with Bone at the piano. Chapman's daughter, Barbara, is thrilled; she's in love with George and believes in his talent. The black cloud over George's life is his propensity to having "black little moods." He visits Dr. Allan Middleton of Scotland Yard. Middleton is an expert on the mind. The doctor's suggestion that George get out and mingle with ordinary people may be good in theory. But it leads George to meet Netta Longdon, a duplicitous music hall dancer. Netta leads George into a torment that sends him into ever blacker and blacker moods, where he does things he can't remember. And wouldn't want to.—J. Spurlin