On a Barcelona beach, the corpse of a young man appears, his face eaten by fish, and he has the phrase "I was born to revolutionize hell" tattooed on his arm. Thus begins a strange enigma. They have to find a name for this dead man and his identity. This is the assignment that Pepe Carvalho, a Galician detective, former CIA agent, and vocational skeptic, receives, which does not prevent him from enjoying and savoring the pleasures of good food and a good bed. Between the underworld of Barcelona and the streets and canals of Amsterdam, Carvalho doesn't take long to come up with the answer.