Brunetti has always regarded abduction as the most horrible of crimes, not only because he has two children of his own, but also because he is scandalised by the thought that a life may depend on an arbitrary ransom, a life which may be simply extinguished if the price is not paid. In a small village at the foot of the Italian Dolomites the gardens of a deserted farmhouse have lain untouched for decades. But the new owner, keen for renovations to begin, is summoned urgently to the house when his workmen disturb a macabre grave. The coat-of-arms on the dead man's ring leads to a rich and influential Venetian family, whose only son has been missing for some time. The father was only too willing to pay the ransom when his son was abducted, but the kidnappers had disappeared into thin air. Is there more behind it than just another kidnapping? Brunetti gets out the files and digs deeper than the body was buried. The motives of the action are not always as noble as the lineage the characters are descended from. And things are not always as idyllic as they are in the Brunetti family.