In 1178, in the 80th year of her life, Hildegard of Bingen and her community of nuns were forced to refrain from their daily cycle of chanted services. Imagining Hildegard's thoughts during that period of enforced silence, author Barbara Lachman creates a "journal" such as Hildegard might have kept--a moving meditation on the power and meaning of the word, music, and silence, and a compelling work of historical re-creation.