Raskolnikov is a poor student living in St Petersburg. Desperate to escape his poverty, he kills two people, and flees with a few watches and some jewellery. Although at first nobody suspects him, his own conscience plagues him and it isn't long before an intelligent police detective by the name of Petrovich begins to have his doubts about Raskolnikov's innocence, and is determined to make him confess.
In Venice, Frances Croy is working to leave the previous year behind: another novel published to little success, a scathing review she can't quite manage to forget, and, most of all, the real reason behind her self-imposed exile from London: the incident at the Savoy. Sequestered within an aging palazzo, Frankie finds comfort in the emptiness of Venice in winter, in the absence of others. And then Gilly appears.