The waterfalls of the sky have opened. The place shakes with thunder. In the darkness that prevails and under relentless rain, everything collapses and sinks into the mud.

The mud rises and spreads: a grayish layer covers the cracks of the earth and the landslides. The wildness of nature takes revenge on the policies of corrupt governments, which disregard the environment and show no respect for environmental geology; at the same time, they guarantee supplies and exemptions to companies that aim for tax evasion and tax avoidance, and to the mafia of speculators.

In Vigata, dark shades and melancholic tones prevail from the shadows that lengthen in the stacked disorder of desolate landscapes; in the lunar cemeteries of rough rocks, in the dim cracks and in the metallic remnants that resemble bones. This disjointed combination of cracks and slopes is a harbinger of dark events.

The exact opposite of the cheerful way of speaking of Catarrella, who invents sounds and equivalences between the words "mud" and "blood"; and with the jumbled letters of his own alphabet, he builds places that lead to mistakes. After all, stained with blood are the muddy wounds of the landscape; and the mistake is identified with the labyrinth into which the mafia families would like to push Inspector Montalbano to deceive him and convince him that the crime he is investigating relates to marital infidelity and not to the Mafia...