Tonio Polsinelli, born in Paris of Italian parents, inherits a vineyard near Naples when his friend Dario is shot in the head. What is so special about a small vineyard which produces awful wine, and why would anyone want to kill the owner, a singer and gigolo whom Tonio could not imagine harvesting grapes in the hot sun? Tonio travels to Italy to find the answer. If this sounds like a Mafia story you would be only partly right since this darkly humorous book is also about the impossibility of translating Italian into French, wine, miracles, the church, and the importance of matching the shape of the pasta to the sauce.
