Nonna Maria, "one of the most charming amateur sleuths ever created" (Tess Gerritsen), sets out to clear her goddaughter's name and uncover the checkered past of an unidentifiable victim in this transporting mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lorenzo Carcaterra.

Nonna Maria has a lot on her plate—and it's not just fresh pasta. Two crimes have rocked the sun-drenched island of Ischia, and once again, the island's denizens have called upon the espresso-brewing, sage counsel-giving sleuth.

A wealthy woman alleges a valuable necklace was stolen from her hotel room. The necklace, she claims, has been in her family for decades. She blames one of the young women working on the cleaning crew as the most likely suspect—a young woman who turns out to be Nonna Maria's goddaughter. She takes the heat, but privately, she proclaims her innocence.

Nearby, the body of a woman found on a curved road near the borough of Barano. The woman is not known to anyone on the island. She has no purse, no identification. The one potential suspect is a young friend of Nonna Maria's who drove by the area that very night and thinks that he may have hit something—a pothole; an animal; or maybe, the woman in question.

It turns out, this woman has a history on the island, having left it decades ago. But why did she return, and more importantly, who killed her? Like the links of a beautiful, missing necklace, it’s up to Nonna Maria to string together the clues and solve these two mysteries before death comes for Ischia again.