The student Claudia Leonardo asks Commissario Brunetti for advice about a retrial. Patta is especially pleased about the support of the pretty new colleague Franca Capari. Before Brunetti can make himself known in this case, Claudia is stabbed to death. Does the murder perhaps have something to do with the valuable pictures that her grandfather acquired as an officer? When Brunetti also finds Signora Jacobs, Claudia's grandmother, dead and discovers the hiding place of the valuable paintings, the case seems to be solved. But a chance encounter finally puts Brunetti on a completely different track...