'He'd almost walked right over it when he finally saw it for what it was: a stain of red blood, churned into the white blanket of snow...'

After getting on the wrong side of the wrong people in Rome, Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone is exiled to Aosta, a small, touristy alpine town far from the cobbled streets and fritto misto of his beloved city.

Rocco's talent for solving crimes is matched only by his disdain for the rules and his eye for a beautiful woman. But when a mangled body is found on the ski slopes, he soon discovers that his Roman sophistication - not to mention his expensive Roman shoes - are of little help in this dangerous and unfamiliar mountain landscape.

With blood on the black run, rumours of mafia involvement and a murderer at large, Deputy Police Chief Schiavone is about to find himself skating on very thin ice...