After a cloak and dagger exchange with an ageing Mafioso, Inspector Montalbano is left haunted by the man’s dying words, which lead him to a mountainside just west of Vigàta where he unearths two young lovers, dead fifty years and still embracing, watched over by a life-size terracotta dog.

Heedless of personal danger, Montalbano’s drive to solve this old crime forces him on a journey through Sicily’s World War II history and to the dark heart of one family . . .