After all the years that Marshal Guarnaccia has commanded the Carabinieri Station housed in Florence's Pitti Palace, great paintings are as familiar a part of his life as the snarled-up traffic. Still, if he joins battle with a successful forger, it is only as a favour to an old friend - and because the man fascinates him.

Then he is dragged into a last-ditch attempt to nail a serial killer, only to find himself faced with a forgery in his own line of business, where the issues prove distressingly familiar. Nobody wants to know the truth about a fake. And if a false case is made against the wrong man, who is going to admit it?