After his death, Virginia’s spirit receives Edgar Poe’s confused soul. She tries to help him regain his sense of self, through remembering their lives together and his final days on Earth. He begins to recollect it all, including the mystery and terror of dying. Enthralled by the experience, he loses touch with her and winds up back in the graveyard as a ghost of Sorrow, haunting her grave forever. All this is portrayed in one long art song.