Murder. Cold-blooded murder. For Carl Underwood, murder is his heroin. It courses through his veins like filth flowing through a sewer line. The object of his addiction to murder is his wife Dolores whose hatred for Polish composer Frederick Chopin and his notorious lover George Sand drives him to the point of utter madness. In effect, Carl Underwood's life is a Prelude to Death in D minor, much like the gentle melody of a piano in a garden filled with roses, nightingales, and violets gently caressed by the fingers of a slut.