A certain Franco Rossi, an official of the Cadastral Department of the Municipality of Venice, appears at Commissioner Brunetti’s house and confusingly explains that the commissioner’s apartment, built on top of a 15th-century building, will be demolished if documents dating back more than half a century are not found authorizing the redevelopment of this architectural monument . A few months later, the same Franco Rossi calls the commissioner from a mobile phone with the intention of telling him something strictly secret, but the connection is broken, and the next day the official is found under the scaffolding of a building being restored with severe injuries, from which he dies. Brunetti undertakes to investigate the strange death, but he still cannot do without friends at the top...