Winter in Vienna. Children disappear. For now without a trace, then their bodies are found. A gift for the tabloid press. For the police a series of defeats. Politically a problem. And at the same time the long-awaited opportunity for the ambitious interior minister. The organized crime is in trouble. The child murderer must be found so that all other dirty jobs can go on.

Under mysterious circumstances, the restorer Lukas Albrecht drowns in the Canale dei Marani in Venice. While the easy-going Commissario Santo sees no criminal offense, the victim's widow resents the details. Anna, who is traveling from Vienna with her eleven-year-old son, doesn't believe it was an accident: her husband didn't have any alcohol in his blood, he knew the lagoon and could swim