On his honeymoon in Canterra, Italy, American writer Paul Pietrowski is wrongfully imprisoned for a local murder. His family enlists Boston Private Investigator Charlie Wallingford to redress the injustice and set Paul free, but Charlie is obstructed by the local police and challenged by the Canterran townspeople. Meanwhile, Paul’s fragile psyche stretches thinner each day he’s behind bars. Charlie determines the only way to free Paul is to unmask the killer himself.

Who has a secret so heinous they’d kill to keep it buried? To convince Charlie to go home, the killer goes on the offensive hiring Roman thugs to attack him and staging a situation to shame him in front of the woman he's become irresistibly attracted to. Charlie responds by devising a hazardous plan to expose the real killer, or die trying.