Scorching sun by the lake. Gunshots. A body splashes into the water. The calm is shattered. Matthias Holzinger, mayor of a Chiemsee community, is abruptly pulled from life on the shores of Lake Garda. The detectives from Verona and Traunstein uncover a web of corruption, real estate fraud, and rivalry at the opera festival of the Arena di Verona. As the investigations progress on both sides of the Alps, gunshots ring out again. Artists, politicians, and a brewery owner obsessed with music – the greed for success, influence, and love turns them into both perpetrators and victims. A crime novel that offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the "better society." A cunning game of deception set in two beautiful vacation regions – for anyone who has always suspected that beneath the idyllic surface, dark depths lie in wait.