Into American writing, "Romanian Fugue in C Sharp" brings an entirely new sensibility, at once haunting and irreverent, lyric and satirical. The American bombing of the oil refineries at Ploiesti, Romania in 1944 plunges the timeless village of Frasinet into the modern world. As the boots of history tramp through Frasinet, bringing the brutal absurdities of Communism, the villagers and their city friends are forced to adapt and survive. Adalgiza and her fellow prostitutes become a socialist weavers' cooperative; George, a hospitable giant, tries to keep his spectator attitude; two families of wandering gypsies refuse to enter into time at all; Theodore, a mischievous intelligence, drowns himself in American jazz and pleasure; Norel, a sorcerer, becomes a secret agent; and Fanoutza, the stubborn, sensitive little girl at the book's center, grows into Stephanie, a poet and journalist, determined to become Theodore's lover and to fly out into the free world.