Carnival days in a snow-covered Venice. An extravagant police investigator, Marco Manente, a lover of the bottle, Italian history, blondes and verbal skirmishes with his right hand man from the South. The mysterious homicide of a feckless young man, with questionable friendships and a chesty girlfriend quite generous with her charms. At first sight, a crime of honour. At second sight, a settling of scores among crooks. But the motive for the crime is a complicated matter: a thick web in which figure a painting of inestimable value, the criminal traffic of what’s left of the Brenta underworld, and the screw-ups of a timid, good-hearted amateur delinquent. To get to the bottom of things, the quick mind and expert eye of Manente are needed. He is the most politically incorrect cop in the entire Police corps, but at the end he reconstructs the complex affair, making use of any means, including those severely prohibited. In the background is Venice, magic and perturbing with its mythic fogs, its sumptuous residences along the Grand Canal and the humble ones often submerged in the high water and lastly, the squeri where the gondolas are constructed, a perfect setting for a most fascinating mystery.