Don’t Torture a Duckling

Bruno, Michele and Tonino catch and taunt Giuseppe Barra, a local simpleton, while he spies on two locals involved with prostitutes. The boys' mischief signals the fragility of village life as rumors and suspicion begin to spread. This act foreshadows the darkness looming over Accendura.

Maciara, a reclusive Gypsy witch, secludes herself in the hills surrounding the village to practice her dark rites. She digs up the skeletal remains of an infant and crafts clay dolls on which she pins the heads with dangerous intent. These early rituals foreshadow the later killings that disrupt the community.

Bruno goes missing, plunging Accendura into fear and speculation. The search for him intensifies as the village confronts the possibility of a hidden killer among them. The disappearance becomes a national talking point as reporters arrive later.

Reporters from across the country converge on Accendura to cover the mystery. The town endures intensified scrutiny and rumors about outsiders and dark forces at work. The media circus magnifies the pressure on local authorities to solve the case quickly.

Giuseppe Barra is arrested after he accepts a ransom offered by Bruno's parents. He insists he only found the body and phoned the parents in hopes of extracting money, a claim that misdirects the investigation. He ultimately leads the police to Bruno's buried corpse, creating a momentary entanglement of guilt and innocence.

Tonino's body is found, and the police realize Giuseppe is innocent of the earlier charges. The discovery shifts the focus of the investigation and unsettles the town's previously fixed beliefs about the culprit. The tragedy worsens the atmosphere of fear surrounding the killings.

During a raging thunderstorm at night, Michele slips out of his home to speak to someone he talks to on the phone and is murdered by an unseen assailant. His body is found the following morning, deepening the town's sense of dread. The murder hints at a longer, hidden pattern behind the disappearances.

Andrea Martelli, a journalist from Rome, befriends Patrizia, a former Milan reporter living in the village to lie low after a drug scandal. Patrizia is ostracized for her cosmopolitan manner and modern dress, complicating her involvement with the village’s tragedies. Their meeting anchors the outsider perspective that contrasts with the locals’ secrets.

Andrea also meets Don Alberto Avallone, a respected local priest, and his reserved mother Aurelia. Alberto runs a boys’ group at the church from which many victims came, linking the murders to the village’s institutions. The encounter establishes the web of trust and suspicion surrounding the clergy and the families involved.

Police visit Francesco, an eccentric hermit who practices black magic, and he claims to have passed his knowledge to his daughter Maciara. He is rumored to have had an incestuous relationship with Maciara and to have disposed of a baby, fueling suspicion around the family. Under pressure, the police arrest Maciara, though her alleged supernatural powers remain contested.

Under questioning, Maciara confesses to the murders, believing that her voodoo dolls and incantations caused the deaths. An alibi provided by a policeman later confirms her innocence, revealing that the real mechanics of the killings lay elsewhere. The confession catalyzes the mob’s violence against her, culminating in her death at the hands of angry locals.

The following day, another young boy is found drowned in a local stream, confirming that the killings are continuing. This fresh tragedy intensifies fear and the sense that a malevolent force remains at large. The community searches for a pattern or culprit to explain the ongoing violence.

Aurelia disappears with her six-year-old deaf-mute daughter Malvina, and Andrea and Patrizia track her to a shack near the village. Aurelia is found barely conscious, begging them to stop her son. The discovery points to the ongoing influence of Alberto over the town’s horrific acts.

It is revealed that Alberto killed the boys not to punish sins but to prevent them from sinning as they grew up. He attempts to throw his sister off a cliff, but Andrea intervenes and hurls Alberto to his death. The climactic confrontation exposes a perverse motive behind the killings and brings a brutal resolution to the village’s dark chapter.