The sudden suicide of a young man prompts his family to ask veteran sleuth Marcus Corvinus to investigate. As usual, Marcus needs Perilla's agile brain to untangle the case, which grows more complex by the minute. Eventually the pair realizes that the suicide was in fact a murder with political dimensions. Corvinus finds his investigations hampered, however, by his new role as reluctant dog sitter to the misnamed Placida, a Gallic boarhound with a gargantuan appetite and minimal hygiene.