Sarrasine

The nameless narrator attends a ball held by a wealthy Parisian family, whose fortune comes from a work of art, and there meets an extraordinary old woman, who bears a strange resemblance to the statue depicted in the painting. He returns to his lodgings to tell the tragic, yet ultimately rewarding tale of the creation of the painting's inspiration: a tale of passion, lust and transexuality in which Music and Art, their powers combined, are fatally attracted.