When a young woman from holiday to find her elderly neighbor dead, she immediately alerts the police. Commissario Brunetti is called to the scene but, though there are swigns of a struggle, it seems the woman has simply suffered a fatal heart attack. Vice-Questore Patta is eager to dismiss the case as a death from natural causes, but Brunetti believes thre is more to it than that. His suspicion are further aroused when the medical examiner finds faint bruising around the victim's neck and shoulders, indicating that someone might have grabbed and shaken her. Could this have caused her heart attack? Was someone threatening her?

As always Commissario Brunetti is successful in the end and reaching the end is a real treat - as always with Donna Leon.

returned to owner