The story of the Songmaster occurs in a future human empire, and follows Ansset, a beautiful young boy whose perfect singing voice has the power of amplifying people's emotions, making him both a potential healer and destroyer.

The core of the story is the idea that young boys and girls are selected and acquired at a very early age on account of their singing abilities.

Songbirds are sold to worthy wealthy clients and stay with them till their fifteenth birthday when they return to the Songhouse.

Singers who fail to make the grade do not necessarily have fulfilling lives even though the Songhouse takes care of their material needs.

When he is aged 9, Riktors Ashen collects Ansset from the Songhouse and is captivated by his beauty, "the kind of face that melted men's hearts as readily as women's.

Ansset first experiences unwanted sexual attention in the form of a palace guard who searches him in preparation for his first meeting with Mikal.

The guard suffers a steep price for lingering just a little too long, a harsh punishment swiftly dealt by Mikal on Ansset's word.

Very soon after his induction into the palace and into Mikal's life, rumors circulate that surely, such a beautiful boy would have shared the emperor's bed.

On a student group visitation to the palace, however, Kya-Kya, a former member of the Songhouse, silently debunks such rumors: "They all wondered, of course, if a boy of such great beauty had found his way into Mikal's bed.

pg 130 A Songbird is only gifted to a person who has been judged to possess a soul capable of fully appreciating such beauty.

Kya-Kya (Kyaren) is a girl a few years older than Ansset who leaves the Songhouse and works her way up to a senior position on Earth.

Josif runs to find help and is captured by security forces, who take him to the palace at Susquehanna where Riktors has him drugged and castrated for his relations with Ansset.

He wrote: What the novel offers is a treatment of characters who share, between them, a forbidden act that took place because of hunger on one side, compassion on the other, and genuine love and friendship on both parts.