A chance encounter with a strange young woman leads Inspector Montalbano to Vigata harbour – and into a puzzling new mystery. The crew of a mysterious yacht – the Vanna – due to dock in the area have discovered a corpse floating in the water, the dead man's face badly disfigured. It isn't long before Montalbano begins to become suspicious of the Vanna's inhabitants. Who is the yacht's owner, the glamorous and short-tempered Livia Giovannini? How has she accrued her riches? And why does she spend so much time at sea?
Meanwhile Montalbano finds himself getting into tangles with the dreaded Commissioner, the exasperating Dr Lattes and a very beautiful young woman at the harbour, with whom he becomes dangerously besotted... Can the Inspector clear his head long enough to unravel this murky mystery?
