Description:

New Orleans, 1838. The banks in the city are closed, and a third of the people are out of work. Benjamin January feels relatively secure, with engagements to play piano at the upcoming balls held by the wealthiest of the American white planters in the city. But when he inadvertantly offends his employer, January finds that his services are no longer required. His only option, to keep his family fed and his house heated in the chilly months to come, is to leave them; sugar planter Henri Viellard, and his young wife, Chloë, offer payment if he will accompany them to Washington to find a missing friend. But as January's search for the missing man takes him from pawnshops to the dark world of grave robbers, slave stealers and lunatic asylums, it becomes clear that while it is very possible that the Viellards' friend is dead, his enemies are very much alive - and ready to kill anyone who gets in their way...