This book, il complotto (the plot) is the first in a trilogy. It is followed by il segreto (the secret) and la fuga (the escape). A seemingly motiveless murder of Gianna Ambrosio, a young Italian woman married to a wealthy Englishman, Charles Court, is carried out in 1968 and the crime is never solved. The widower remarries but maintains his link with the family in Venice and the lives of his new family become interwoven with them. After Court dies his eldest son Paul, who by now is living in Venice, digs up the past and convinces himself that he has solved the murder and proves how he thinks it was done and by whom. He hatches an elaborate plot to prove he is correct and bring the person to justice. Tragically his plan goes badly wrong and he is forced then to try and cover up the terrible things he has done. Is the original killer someone from the past or still alive and how does Paul try and conceal what he has done?