The play tells the story of Prudencia Hart, a collector of folk songs, an academic who has devoted her life to the study of folk material. She comes to the village fair in search of songs for her thesis 'Paradigms of emotional Contact in the Performance and Text of Traditional Folk Song in Scotland 1572-1798'. After the fair she finds herself at a "lock-in" with the locals where songs are sung and stories told. That's when she hears of the existence of the lost song, the song beyond song. . . the original song. . . the uncollected song. She sets off on a journey into the night to find it.