Max Gusberti

Detective Salvo Montalbano solves crimes in Vigata with his always loyal, and sometimes effective, police squad.

The story begins just as Nazi occupation in Italy has ended, during the months when Jewish children and teenagers returned home from concentration camps to find no family waiting. A few courageous souls help them adjust in an impromptu place with no resources, against the background of an Italy that is exhausted, miserable and reduced to ruins.