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In 1898, a freight train crossing the Rockies with a cargo of grand pianos for the salons and conservatoires of California jumps its tracsk and plunges down a sheer ravine. The only survivor of this tragedy is a small child of indeterminate sex by the name of Hilary Fronde. No one can fathom how she has come to be on the train. For the next century, Fronde's name crops up from time to time in far flung places: a mysterious figure in Marinetti's war correspondence; the dedicatee of Satie's Vexations; a recurrent theme in some unpublished Cage mesostics, master Musician of Tlon in a Borges rough draft; steel appendage player in Beefheart's Magic Band.