To survive the tragedies that have crushed him, Aaron Alanetich, a troubled writer, has taken refuge in a provincial town, in an affluent neighborhood, hoping to rediscover some semblance of a zest for life and a taste for writing. To stifle his loneliness, he has taken in Mila, a young homeless woman, an Esmeralda who has fallen at the foot of an ATM, and her stowaway, Eugene, a brown rat. Lacking inspiration and teetering on the brink of despair, the suicidal writer continues to drag himself to the factory, to "pretend" to work—like everyone else—and ensure their survival. When he starts receiving mysterious Pizzini—"small pieces of paper used by the Sicilian Mafia for secret messages"—he knows he's cornered, that the stranger who bombards him with accusatory remarks knows him better than he knows himself and won't let him go. The time has come to write his final book, what other choice is there? But to write it, he will have to confess to a heinous crime, and his pen must not falter. You hold in your hands a book written by a murderer!