Age does not prevent Montalbano from seeking the joy and magic that only teenage loves can offer, and from experiencing situations that reveal emotional immaturity and intense absurdity, palpitations and erotic lust, strong passion, explosions of anger, as well as intense jealousy.
He remembers by heart the poem Adolescente by Vincenzo Cardarelli. He recites the verses that speak of the "sponge diver" who will have the fortune to taste the "rare pearl" of the young girl. And he knows very well, despite the skepticism of middle age, more or less, between seriousness and joking, that "... the mature person is a child who whines because he has grown up."
Next to the inspector, in this difficult phase, stands the inspector Fazio, silently, discreetly, and with understanding. In contrast, his fiancée Livia does not believe in his "pragmatism" and considers that the confession of an infidelity made with the honesty that characterizes her age of frivolity was a boast. Montalbano was struck by the beauty and immoral love life of the young Angelica.
