The brilliant and acerbic Dr. Kay Scarpetta has settled in Charleston, where she has established a modern forensic laboratory in which her team works with his niece Lucy Faranelli, Rose and Pete Marino. This time, Scarpetta travels to Italy to investigate the bloody death of Drew Martin, a young and famous tennis player whose body has been found mutilated in the venerable historic center of Rome. The murderer is a man nicknamed the Sandman because of the macabre residue found at the crime scene.