Michela Canova, a radio journalist, returns home to find that Angela Bari, her neighbour, has been murdered. Coincidentally, she is asked to prepare a series on crimes against women. Researching the programmes, Michela Canova is forced to confront the every day horror and violence of big city life.

Did Angela Bari, seemingly so sweet and fragile, drive her many admirers to the very limit of sexual frenzy until one of them exploded in an orgy of hatred and loathing? And why does she, Michela Canova, see the same pattern of incitement and repulsion repeat itself in her own relationships? Once again, Dacia Maraini asks fundamental questions about the human condition. How much can individuals escape patterns of domination, of male domination, that are in place the world over?