Stein was once a promising piano player, but he interrupted his studies to become a construction worker in his hometown. Right after being involved in an accident with his truck, his grandfather dies. Shaken and confused, he heads for Bergen in his partly malfunctioning car, thereby making a journey back to the years at the Bergen Conservatory of Music where the girlfriend of his youth Astrid was also a part of his life. The journey takes place on many time levels, and while Stein tries to make sense of what really happened to him, there is great uncertainty as to what he will do.

In Rubato Vaage unites a modernist experience with a stringent and consistent narrative logic. Personal and vivid, the novel offers an abundance of reflections on the essence of art in general and music in particular.