In 1930s Hungary, the future shimmered with promise for young pianist Stephen de Bastion.
His life swirled with cocktails, romance, applause and the vibrant energy of Budapest, echoing with music late into the night. Then came 1939 and Stephen’s world collapsed.
This is the story of his brutal descent, through forced labour camps, Mauthausen, Gunskirchen, and the unimaginable horrors he endured as a man of Jewish descent during the Holocaust. Yet, it is also a story of extraordinary escape, resilience and the piano that waited for him.
Decades later, that same piano finds its way to Roxanne de Bastion, Stephen’s granddaughter, after the death of her father. It had been in the family for over a century, but it is only when Roxanne, deep in grief, discovers an old cassette recording of Stephen that the piano’s astonishing history—and her family's—begins to unfold.
Drawing on her grandfather’s original recordings, unpublished memoirs, letters and documents, Roxanne intertwines music with storytelling to bring this extraordinary history to life.