A collection of folkloric tales follows a single-minded young musician who rejects household work to pursue his fiddle, wandering from home through town and countryside in search of listeners. He plays for family, nobles, revelers, farmhands, animals, and the natural world, only to be ignored, interrupted, or drowned out by louder voices; sometimes his tunes spark rough communal singing or the indifferent chatter of trees and streams. Disillusionment and the threat of despair lead to an encounter with a peculiar stranger, and the stories explore artistic longing, misunderstanding, and the uneasy relation between performer and audience.