Leda, a virgin bride, leaves her small, rural community in Italy to join her husband, Dante, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he migrated almost two years prior to find a more prosperous life. Unfortunately, by the time Leda arrives Dante is dead from an anarchist uprising. Refusing to return to Italy which holds tragic memories of her dead cousin, Leda decides to stay in the bustling and brutal city thousands of miles away. It's 1913 and proper women can only get low paying menial, domestic jobs, while all other jobs have been taken by the large influx of male immigrants from all over Europe. Leda knows she cannot survive on her paltry pay and refuses to become an unprotected, fallen women in one of the many brothels of Buenos Aires. Instead, she dons her husband's clothes, takes up her father's violin, and joins one of the many bands playing tango. At all times, Leda must hide her true gender for fear of retaliation and violence. Over the years, Leda yearns to have a real relationship with a woman rather than having to keep her distance. If she is ever found out, Leda will not just be a vulnerable women in a violent city but will have committed the heinous crime of stealing a man's place, work, and earnings as well as betraying the men around her.
De Robertis is impossibly good at placing readers within the city of Buenos Aires, making you feel like you can smell, see, and feel the grittiness and the chaotic overcrowding of a city overwhelmed by its dramatic population increase. She does equally well describing the importance and origins of the tango and how it evolved due to popular taste and demand. There is a slight lag in the book midway through, where the repetition of Leda's life becomes somewhat tedious, but readers will be well rewarded by following through to the end as the tension quickly escalates when a new venue and new band mates enter the picture.
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