The Winter Concerto is a collection of stories where the spirit of perfection plays a key role in the world. These stories cover a wide range of topics from the composition of Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto to the death of the French philosophe Jean Jacques Rousseau and the pursuit of state-authorized Zen tea cups in medieval Japan. Though perfection is long-shot, the pursuit of it drives the characters in these stories toward an awareness of what can make the world a better place.