Commissario Brunetti's hopes of a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are once again dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in Marghera
- a body so badly beaten the face is unrecognizable Brunetti searches Venice for someone who can identify the dead man But he is met with a wall of silence Then he receives a telephone call from a contact who promises some tantalizing information & before the night is out Brunetti is confronting yet another appalling & apparently senseless death