Donna Leon's eighteenth novel opens with Guido and Paola Brunetti on their way to a dinner party at Palazzo Falier. Guido spots a couple up ahead of them, and his curiosity is piqued. The two-Maurizio Cataldo and his wife Franca-turn out to be guests at the dinner. Later that week at the Questura, Brunetti is asked for two favors. The first request is from Count Orazio Falier, Paola's father. The next request comes from Maggiore Guarino, a government investigator from the mainland, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage and hazardous waste from the industrial north and other countries.
