Carlo Cecchi

Upon unearthing a one-of-a-kind, blood red violin, appraiser Charles Morritz uncovers the spectacular journey of the long-lost masterpiece - how it changed hands and the lives of all who touched it.

Herve Joncour is a married silkworm smuggler in 19th century France. He travels to Japan to collect his clandestine cargo after his original shipment was destroyed. While in Japan, he spots a beautiful Japanese woman who is the concubine of a local baron. He immediately becomes obsessed. Without speaking the same language, they communicate through letters until war intervenes. Their unrequited love persists however, and Herve's wife Helene begins...

Irene lives alone on the coastline outside Rome. To her father and her married lover, she's a student. In reality, she often travels to Mexico where she can legally buy a powerful barbiturate. Working under the name of Miele (Honey), her clandestine job is to help terminally-ill people to die with dignity by giving them the drug. One day she supplies a new client with a fatal dose, only to find out he's perfectly healthy but tired of life. Irene is...