New York City, 1938. The brilliant Black dancer Lavinia Williams is scandalously married to Leon Theremin, Russian inventor of the revolutionary electronic instrument that bears his name. Their love is strained by a racist society, precarious politics and artistic frustration − the unfinished dream of the terpsitone, Leon's new electronic creation that would allow dancers to make music with their bodies.

One night at the Waldorf-Astoria, an ugly, racist confrontation with drunken revelers sends Lavinia and actor Noble Washington fleeing into the underground sanctuary of a vodou priestess, Mama Augustine. There, in a powerful ritual, Lavinia is drawn into the spirit world of the ancestors who arrived as chattel on the slave ships. Through trance and dream she witnesses confused visions of the Haitian Revolution—the rebellious slaves, oppressive colonizers, vodou dancers, even a mysterious spaceman who foretells the Blacks' victory.

She awakens back in her home, where the stakes have become real: Leon is accused of betraying his homeland and is ordered back to Russia. Leon wants to return and prove his innocence, but Lavinia hears echoes of the ancestors. She fears he faces slave labor or worse. She turns again to the spirits for guidance. But before a choice can be made, Leon is arrested and taken away.

A year later in Haiti, Lavinia discovers that the forces of spirit, music, and resistance are still at work. In a coded musical message from Leon, she learns that he lives—and that the journey she has taken has brought her at last to the distant shore of her destiny. The opera closes in a joyous dance where past, future, audience, and spirits unite.