Summary

In the chapter “1950: Adagio, Andante, Allegro,” the Count talked to Vasily about the freedom he believed that children, such as Sofia, who had just turned seventeen, should be given and the way he believed a parent should remain composed if his child did not act as he thought she should. Just after he gave that speech, the Count learned that Sofia was in the ballroom with Viktor Stepanovich, the conductor of the orchestra at the Piazza.

The Count entered that room and believed he had caught Stepanovich and Sofia in an embrace. He picked the man up by his collar even as Stepanovich tried to tell him there had been a mistake. Sofia told her father that Stepanovich was teaching her how to play the piano.

Sofia demonstrated by playing one of Chopin’s opuses. The Count was astonished by...