Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men come to investigate it has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates the glittering underworld of legitimate horse racing and the Mafia's connection to it, the scrupulous and melancholy Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte.