Tourists do not get lost in the sleepy village of Montesecco. Only a few dozen people live here, in the hinterland of the Adriatic. It is an unusually hot July. Thunderstorms are in the air, as one of their own is dead: a venomous viper has bitten Giorgio Lucarelli. What appears to be an accident seems to have been a well-planned act of revenge. Carlo, the father of the deceased, forbids the burial until the perpetrator is caught, and shortly thereafter, he himself suffers a fatal accident. The entire village of Montesecco is searching for the murderer - and nearly everyone in town is a suspect. And while in the summer heat two bodies await their burial, the poison of the vipers spreads like wildfire. Jaumann richly and vividly embellishes his images. After this ode, the reader is left with just one wish: a second helping!.