On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been spotted in one of Venice’s canals. The body is quickly recovered and the victim’s identity discovered by sheer coincidence. But who could the dead man’s enemies have been? He was undocumented, leaving Brunetti and his colleagues with no leads to chase up. It’s only when the Commissario delves into his own past, recalling the Italy of his student days, that a solution to the case starts to emerge.