Music powers the plot of. The Unicorn Sonata. From "Papas Music—Sales and Repairs" to the lingering refrains of the music of Shei'rah, music affects, and sometimes transforms, the lives of the characters. At first, music is remote, hard to find. It runs through Joey's head, but she has difficulty expressing it.

Josephine Angelina Rivera is thirteen years old, a good-hearted person only beginning to understand what she might become as an adult. She and John Papas are drawn to each other by their loneliness and their love of music. Papas, who understands music, recognizes in Joey a talent he himself does not possess, even though Joey herself is unsure of her talent. Whereas Joey is at the beginning of her life, Papas has already had an eventful one, just hinted at by the references to his need in the past to move...