Having got on the wrong side of some powerful people, Rocco Schiavone, deputy prefect of police, is exiled to Aosta, a small alpine town. The sophisticated, crotchety Roman is not best pleased - he despises mountains, snow, and the provincial locals as much as he disdains his superiors and their petty rules. What he loves is solving crimes. And when a mangled body is discovered on a piste, Rocco faces his first challenge -identifying the victim, a procedure complicated by his ignorance of the customs, dialect, and history of his new home.