Proud of its ancient traditions, Venice doesn’t miss any opportunity for a celebration. Every month has its holiday, and the Venetians love revelry. But what happens if every time someone ends up dead? Right, because during the Festa delle Marie the corpse of a red-haired beauty queen is found, while the Festa di San Marco is stricken by a new victim, a brunette. And it’s only the beginning. Chief Detective Superintendent Marco Manente must take the situation in hand. He can’t let a murderer roam the calli, Venice’s narrow streets, unpunished while the terrorized tourists flee the city. Still, the unpredictable and obstinate cop doesn’t let the situation interfere with the delights of good food, drinking in typical wine bars, the bacari and his vivacious love life, and now that he’s about to become a father, he takes life even more seriously. Still, he must stop the series of homicides that are bloodying the lagoon. There are too many questions without answers. Why is someone “fatally celebrating” with members of the other sex just when everyone would like to have fun? What’s the common denominator for those poor girls who end up strangled in the darkest covered walkways, the sotoporteghi? When will the murderer stop? Manente is an experienced and capable cop, but he has a tendency – not terribly ethical – to take justice into his own hands. This time, the stakes are high; it’s become, to say the least, very personal, and his squad needs to stay close to him to keep under control his “investigative exuberance” that has turned into a thirst for vendetta. The key to the investigation is the strangler’s choice to kill during those particular days, but it’s a hard key to put in the lock. Only extreme repentance and, more than anything, the moderating of the most trusted collaborators of the Chief who runs the Fondamenta S. Lorenzo police station will avoid the worst.