Three army officials are murdered but made to look as if they killed themselves, launching a high-tension case that pulls in layers of power, money, and hidden loyalties. The investigation is led by Inspector Giorgio Solmi, Lt. Luigi Caprara, and Officer De Luca, who must navigate political pressure and a web of semi-secret contacts as they press for answers.
Solmi and Caprara visit the estate of the retired madam, Isidora Grimani—better known as the Baronessa—whose influence stretches through circles of wealth and vice. They learn she runs a brothel from her grounds and, seeking information, offer her immunity in exchange for cooperation. Their interrogation then shifts to Chiarotti’s last visitor, Giuliana Raimondi, known as “la Tunisina.” Raimondi arrives at the hospital having attempted suicide, and while doctors reveal she is the prime suspect, Solmi grows wary of a broader blackmail plot and hints that Raimondi may have witnessed more than she admits. He remains convinced there is a hidden truth behind her confession and pushes for further clarity.
Overnight, Caprara and De Luca shadow Chiarotti’s villa and witness a break-in that aims to steal tape recordings. The intruder is Remo Ortolani, who is promptly taken in, but Solmi’s ear catches a crucial detail: the tapes include a conversation between General Stocchi and a lawyer named Rienzi, in which Stocchi resists a conspiratorial plot. The discovery hints at a much larger scheme in which blackmail and power intersect, and Caprara insists that Ortolani’s claim of blackmail involvement must be weighed against the possibility of targeted manipulation.
Back at the center of the case, Mannino, the District Attorney, uncovers another troubling turn: the very tape Ortolani sought to obtain has been erased, erasing a potential damning thread and leaving Solmi to wonder who is orchestrating the cover-up. In pursuit of leverage, Solmi confronts Martinetti, the husband’s wife—[Massù]?—the oil magnate’s wife’s former lover’s circle, to learn more about the ties that bind their social world to the case. Martinetti reveals a tangled history: Chiarotti had been selling blackmail tapes about Martinetti and his wife, creating a dangerous incentive for everyone involved to keep quiet and to deny involvement.
The plot thickens when Raimondi is abducted again from the hospital. With Raimondi under pressure, her captors try to force a confession or a confession-by-money bargain. After a tense struggle, she shoots one of her captors but is then killed by Massù. Solmi and Caprara deduce that Massù’s true identity is Giovanni Andreassi, and a confrontation at a boxing club ends with Massù’s arrest. He finally confesses that he staged Raimondi’s crime to silence her, revealing that Chiarotti was killed because he supposedly had blackmail material on Martinetti and his wife, a claim Martinetti strongly denies.
As the investigation presses on, Mannino grows wary of how far Solmi’s methods have reached and pushes for a broader confrontation involving Martinetti and Massù to uncover the actual killers behind Raimondi and Chiarotti. But the case takes another brutal turn when Massù is found dead in a prison riot, a crime that appears to be the work of a non-inmate rather than a fellow prisoner. Around the same time, De Luca is murdered in a separate hit, the attack clearly aimed at crippling Solmi’s team.
Solmi’s girlfriend, Maria, receives photographs showing the killers in Germany, and Captain Sperli offers a startling breakthrough: the mastermind behind thelatest wave of killings is a German mercenary named Franz Schmidt. Solmi and Sperli pursue Schmidt as he tries to flee, and a tense chase ends with Solmi capturing Schmidt, only for Sperli to shoot him out of a sense of protection, claiming Schmidt posed a direct threat. In Schmidt’s hotel room, Solmi uncovers documents that name a list of conspirators, including Rienzi, and even finds coordinates pointing to a mountain camp where the criminals seem to be organizing.
The trio heads to the hidden camp, where paramilitary training grounds are set and secret papers burn in a swift, violent blaze. The fugitive at the camp is revealed to be Captain Sperli himself, and the investigators learn that Sperli and Rienzi are the same person—two faces of the same conspiracy. Sperli’s revelations force Mannino to suspend him and charge him with murder and weapon dealing, while Caprara admits—in a chilling confrontation—that he has a plan to help Sperli escape. As the plan unfolds, Caprara and others murder Sperli on a busy street, a calculated end meant to silence the traitor.
In a final, brutal twist, Solmi heads back to his car to confront the truth with Mannino, but before he can speak, a drive-by bullets Solmi, ending the pursuit and leaving Maria’s eyes wide with shock and sorrow. The case, which began as a murder-suicide setup, spirals into a sprawling conspiracy that stretches through families, fortunes, and factions, leaving a city deeply unsettled and the truth forever elusive.
