A young Don Juan is found murdered in front of his apartment building early one morning, and an elderly couple is reported missing after an excursion to the ancient site of Tindari—two seemingly unrelated cases amid the daily complications of life at Vig?ta police headquarters—in this fifth book in the series (following The Voice of the Violin). But when Inspector Salvo Montalbano discovers that the couple and the murdered young man lived in the same building, his investigation stumbles onto Sicily's brutal "New Mafia," leading him down a path more evil and more far-reaching than any he has been down before.