Aurelio Zen is a formidable detective, but he's always put honesty before advancement. The arrival of clever and ambitious Tania to the team sees Zen's vigor reawakened. Driven by romance, re-energized, and armed with a new confidence, Zen's investigations take him from crowded Rome to the spectacular Italian countryside as he negotiates a complex string of murder cases.

Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen had crossed swords with the establishment before - and lost. But from the depths of a mundane desk job in Rome he is unexpectedly transferred to Perugia to take over an explosive kidnapping case involving one of Italy's most powerful families.

Hiding out at a Tuscan resort following months of recuperation from wounds received in a car bombing, Aurelio Zen is waiting to testify at an imminent Mafia trial, but with people around him dropping dead, the targets of hitmen after him, Zen heads back into action to stop the killers.