Beautiful and serene Venice is a city almost devoid of crime. But that is little comfort to Maestro Helmut Wellauer a world-renowned conductor whose intermission refreshment comes one night with a little something extra in it-cyanide. For Guido Brunetti vice-commissario of police and detective genius finding a suspect isnt a problem; narrowing the large and unconventional group of enemies down to one is. As the suave and pithy Brunetti pieces together clues a shocking picture of depravity and revenge emerges leaving him torn between what is and what should be right -- and questioning what the law can do and what needs to be done.