The death threats against the local pharmacist Arturo Manno do not surprise any of his friends because he is a known womanizer in his small town. They do not take his reports of the threats seriously until Manno, together with his friend Dr. Antonio Roscio, are killed while hunting one early morning. Suspicion falls on the father and two brothers of a 16-year-old girl who supposedly had relations with Manno. But Professor Laurana, who had seen one of the extortion letters, does not believe in the guilt of these illiterates from a rundown neighborhood since the letters of the anonymous notes have been made with clippings from the Osservatore Romano - a Vatican City State newspaper with few local subscribers.