Inspector Rocco Schiavone hates everything about the mountain resort of Aosta: the cold, the mountains, the far-offness and above all the snow - all the more since that's exactly where his first case takes him.

Rocco Schiavone is called to the place where a corpse was found. The victim has apparently hanged himself from a chandelier - but perhaps the murderer only faked the suicide. The violent husband is one of the main suspects.

The daughter of well-known builder Pietro Berguet is kidnapped. Rocco rushes to find the girl's current whereabouts, but finds himsels disturbed when the kidnapping doesn't follow a usual pattern.

Rocco finds himself with two additional cases, on top of his private troubles with his lover Nora; one is the case of Ludovico Venier, a man who fell to his death while mountaineering with his partners.