Pannonica tells the story of flamboyant Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, a descendent of the English branch of the Rothschild family. Having acquired a love of jazz in post–World War II New York, she leaves her husband and children to become an important patron and friend of the biggest names in jazz of the time. Leading exponents of bebop, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk were regular visitors to her apartment on Fifth Avenue for rest, conversation, and impromptu jam sessions. Her friendship with Monk is the focus of this novel set against a backdrop of the lives of three fictional characters, all of whom are strong young women drawn to him by their passion for modern music.

Young mother Ruby meets “T” and “Nica” in 1955 when they frequent the bar in Harlem where she works. Soon she is swept up in their lifestyle of music, drugs, and wild parties. Monk is at a low point in his career; he is banned from playing in New York because of a drug charge and is suffering from psychological problems. Another jazz-loving woman to enter the life of the troubled musician is French adolescent Moune, who hears him playing at the Salon du jazz 1954 in Paris. She is witness to Monk and Nica’s meeting for the first time and to the start of their lifelong friendship. Finally, it is through the eyes of Chine, Moune’s daughter, that we see Monk at the end of his life. The retired musician has moved into Nica’s home in New Jersey, where he no longer plays or even talks.

This nostalgic view of 1950s New York contrasts the bleak post–World War II era with an account of a vibrant, liberated woman who completely devoted her life to the people she admired.