Sylvia Fox goes to Umbria for the wedding of her niece, Alice. But the groom, Tommaso, disappears, leaving a woman's body in the lake at the bottom of his garden.

Sylvia helps out on an archaeological dig at the Castello di Monterosa, and finds a skeleton buried in a shallow grave. The locals are convinced it's that of a teenage girl who disappeared 25 years ago.

When Sasha Pavlenko, the son of a Russian politician is arrested in Rome for the murder of a fellow-student, Sylvia's ex-husband and ex-colleague Adam asks her to investigate.