David Denby (an accomplished art thief), is looking forward to an amusing lunch date with an old flame: the lovely Contessa Antonella. But the meeting leads to an astonishing request - and his most ambitious theft to date. The meticulously executed crime taxes the experience and imagination of Commissiario Pasetti, for whom the biggest mystery of all is, WHY? Meanwhile, on the fringes of society, two people threaten Denby's escape: Anna, a street urchin, who lives by picking the pockets of tourists - and a vagrant known as 'Radio Man'. Their evidence leads the dogged Pasetti in hot pursuit...