Anton Visser was a Jewish, multilingual composer born at the turn of the 19th century. He played for audiences across Europe, and his specialty was speed-playing. Although after his death no likenesses of him survived, it is known that he had a distinctive deformity -- an extra ring finger on his right hand. This deformity caused the public to spread unsettling stories about him, and compare him to Satan. However, the extra finger added to his talent. Although public opinion on Visser was widely split, at one point his performance of a piece called Fantasy caused audiences to faint and break into seizures, simply from the speed and motion with which he played. The fame of this particular piece was short lived. However, when Visser died shortly after over a small dispute, the piece _Fantasy _was thought to die with him, impossible for anyone else to play. Then, in 1891, a young Jewish girl named Anna Kuhl was discovered. She played so well that her music teacher proclaimed she would one day play Visser's _Fantasy. _Anna, like Visser, had eleven fingers. Anna's musical talent had been discovered very early on, when she was only two years old. As a result, she began practicing piano intensely from the time she was young. In 1895, she performed her debut in Vienna, which went so well that she subsequently embarked on a European tour and took Europe by storm. However, the level of public scrutiny which Anna was under caused her great stress, and she began to have phases where she would retreat from the public eye, leaving people to speculate that she had had a nervous breakdown or other illness. When she returned from her first retreat, she performed with a silk covering over her six-fingered hand, a first indication that her deformity also had a psychological toll on her. As Anna's career grew, she found comfort in her close relationship with her cousin Hugo. Their relationship is recounted by the narrator through the use of Hugo's diaries. At this same time, the political climate in Germany began to change. Anna was invited to perform a Wagner concert, as Wagner is a heralded German composer. However, after Anna's performance, the audience burst into outrage, claiming that because she was Jewish, she was not fit to play someone as great as Wagner, and had butchered the performance. After that incident, Anna plays a concert entirely of pieces by Chopin, and according to the critics does a masterful job of channeling Chopin's sadness, perhaps, the narrator muses, because of her own inner turmoil. At the same time, Anna is working on Visser's piece _Fantasy _and preparing to perform it. The anticipated performance causes much public outcry. As in the earlier century, the public is fascinated and split by the showy and overly complicated piece. However, Hugo in his diary relays that Anna feels free while practicing Visser's piece, and Hugo writes that it was one of the only times that he saw her happy. Simultaneously, the political climate and hate in Germany is getting worse, and the stress on Anna is increasing. On the night of her performance, Anna and her entourage struggle to get to the performance hall due to the crowds of people trying to get in. Before Anna goes on stage, she insists that she wants a moment totally alone. Her family reluctantly agrees, and from outside the room they hear a sound like a shot. Worried, they reenter the room to see if Anna is okay, and she insists nothing is wrong, but her hand is wrapped in a silk scarf. When Anna gets onstage, instead of going to the piano she stands and removes the scarf from her hand, showing the audience her bloody hand, which now has five fingers instead of six. After this, Anna disappears entirely, never to be seen or heard from again, and the hope that Visser's _Fantasy _can be played is lost for good.