The quiet of the Venetian night is shattered as a band of armed men smash their way into Dr Gustavo Pedrolli's apartment, fracture his skull and grab his eighteen-month-old baby. And when Commissario Guido Brunetti, pulled from his bed by the news, arrives at the hospital to investigate, no one knows why the eminent paediatrician has suffered such a violent assault.

But soon Brunetti begins to uncover a story of infertility, desperation, and an underworld where babies can be bought for cash - linked with a money-making scam between pharmacists and doctors in the city. And knowledge can be as destructive as greed - certain information about one's neighbours can lead to all kinds of corruption and all sorts of pain.