The black sand of Etna submerges Catania and Vanina is forced to deal with the end of her story with Paolo, while a corpse resurfaced from the past demands her attention. In an uninhabited villa, the mummified corpse of a woman is found: it is Maria Cutò, a prostitute who died fifty years earlier. Vanina discovers that Gaetano, the man she was supposed to run away with, had also been killed there, perhaps killed by the mafia. But what is the truth? Is it pure coincidence? The case had been solved quickly at the time but the policewoman discovers a terrible past.