4 ideas
In Vigàta, a young man, Nenè Sanfilippo, is shot dead outside his apartment building. At the same time an elderly couple, the Griffos, are found to have disappeared after a bus excursion for pensioners to the sanctuary at Tindari. Inspector Montalbano pursues the two cases and finds they are linked through a Mafia operation trafficking in human organs.
Old people whose routines are small and predictable, such as a bus trip, a pension or a quiet flat, can vanish for days before anyone registers it. Their social invisibility is not only a sadness but a vulnerability that predators can exploit. The failure of neighbours and family to notice becomes part of the crime's mechanism.
Traditional Mafia power built on land, protection and local loyalty gives way to globalized, businesslike trades in which the human body itself becomes merchandise. The shift erodes the old codes and their bosses' authority. Violence becomes more impersonal and more transnational in the process.
An aging Mafia boss, Balduccio Sinagra, approaches Montalbano to arrange the arrest of his own fugitive grandson. The detective must decide how far to cooperate, knowing that any arrest he makes also serves the boss's strategy.