In this second volume of the Simona Tavianello series, Serge Quadruppani concentrates on a less discussed side of contemporary Italy: the rise of militant environmentalists. Naturally the tale is complicated by political corruption and unsolved murders.

On vacation with her husband in an idyllic Italian valley, Police Inspector Simona Tavianello stops at the local beekeeper's shop to buy some honey, but instead she finds a body lying in the entrance. Tavianello tries to avoid involvement—she is, after all, off-duty. But when she realizes that the murder weapon is her own gun, what can she do but take charge?

The victim was an engineer at the controversial agri-food research center for Sacropiano, a biotechnology company that has been accused of developing pesticides that are making the bees in the region disappear. At the same time Simona found the body, the local beekeepers were nearby organizing a militant sit-in to protest the company's practices. And on the floor near the corpse was a tract entitled, "The Bee Revolution." Simona Tavianello's investigation gets her caught between the radical environmentalists and the powerful industrialists who are allied with the police. That would be complication enough, but she also needs to deal with the wounded ego of Cacabonda, the local cara-binieri, who is the one officially in charge of the investigation.