It's September 1946 and - following a wartime break - the Venice Film Festival is once again being staged, attracting the biggest stars of world cinema to Northern Italy, and bringing a touch of glamour back to this most romantic of European cities. Romeo Beechini, the young head of an old wealthy Venetian family, has invited a mixed group to dinner. Unfortunately one of his house-guests, Leonardo di Capulet, the bright new hope of Hollywood, has just been found dead in his bath. When it turns out he didn't die of natural causes, only one conclusion can be drawn: one or more of the guests has killed him. —description from the publisher