In this engaging memoir, an American writer living in Paris recounts his experiences in a piano shop tucked into an out-of-the-way street on the Rive Gauche. Walking his two young children to school every morning, Thad Carhart passes an unassuming little storefront in his Paris neighborhood. Intrigued by its simple sign - Desforges Pianos - he enters, only to have his way barred by the shop's imperious owner. Unable to stifle his curiosity, he finally lands the proper introduction, and a world previously hidden is brought into view. As he earns the trust of the atelier's music lovers, he shows us a life in which the serious pursuit of music is as natural asbreathing.