Commissario Brunetti is eagerly awaiting the long-awaited comeback of the opera diva Flavia Petrelli. After a mysterious pause, the famous soprano returns to the stage with Puccini's "Tosca". A few days before the premiere, trade unionists use the attention to protest against the commercialization of the cultural industry: they want to paralyze the opera house with a strike. When a boat for transport services goes up in flames and Petrelli's costume assistant Francesca is killed shortly afterwards, the spokesman for the uprising, Andrea Santello, comes under suspicion. The dead woman is his sister, who continued to work as a strike breaker for the Petrelli. Vice-Questore Patta sees Andrea's hiding as a welcome admission of his guilt. While Brunetti's boss hopes that the premiere can now take place undisturbed, the inspector is following another lead: someone is secretly observing Flavia Petrelli and trying to use her comeback for a big, self-indulgent production. Brunetti and Sergente Vianello have to forestall this person who, out of a misunderstood passion, was responsible for a bloody act. The opera diva is in dire danger.
—ARD Das Erste