Rome in the 17th century, a few days before the 13th Jubilee Year gets underway. The engraving of a danse macabre in a decidedly libertine pamphlet appears to have inspired the murder of a priest. Inquisitor Girolamo Svampa is called in to investigate, having been appointed commissarius by the highest echelons of the Roman Curia. He will be dealing with anonymous slander and odd sightings of a masked man, assisted all the while by Father Francesco Capiferro, secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, and Svampa’s own right-hand man, Cagnolo Alfieri. Right from the start, the highly sensitive and dangerous investigation will put Svampa on a collision course with the powers that be, and more will die before the mystery is solved.
