"When Gordon Clay, a failed musician turned community college music instructor, suffers chest pains, he fears heart disease. But in fact he is suffering a midlife crisis, one compounded by loneliness, professional disappointment and spiritual doubts ... An irreverent lapsed Catholic, he begins to tutor one of his least promising students, Cecelia, a tone-deaf, marathon-running ex-nun who is convinced God has chosen her for a calling in music. In a park he befriends Moopuna, a young boy of Pacific Island and African descent. He later begins a relationship with the child's young, unwed Polynesian mother. Gordon's hopes for a professional career and a traditional family don't materialize, but through unlikely characters such as these he gradually finds fulfillment in other ways, and with it a restoration of faith."--Page [2] of jacket.