The story is told ''in medias res'' as a series of Flashback (narrative)s. Max Tooney, a musician, enters a secondhand music shop just before closing time, broke and badly in need of money. He has only a C.G. Conn trumpet, which he sells for less than he had hoped. Clearly torn at parting from his prized possession, he asks to play it one last time. The shopkeeper agrees, and as the musician plays, the shopkeeper immediately recognizes the song from a broken Matrix (record production) he found inside a recently acquired secondhand piano. He asks who the piece is by, and Max tells him the story of 1900.