12 May 1957, 24th edition of the Mille Miglia, the Italian race. A Ferrari driven by Spanish marquis Alfonso De Portago goes off the road, killing nine spectators. Among them there are five children. De Portago and his co-équipier, the American Edmund Nelson, die with them.
The race is not stopped. But once the dead are buried, polemics erupt. They will be colossal and overwhelm the race, which will be cancelled. But we are in Italy and so a culprit is sought, who is soon identified in the person of Enzo Ferrari, the Modenese manufacturer of the world's most famous sports cars.
The accusations point the finger towards him. An enquiry is immediately opened. Ferrari's passport and driving licence are withdrawn, as if he had been driving De Portago's car. The technical expertise ordered by court nails him. Ferrari is indicted for multiple homicide, and risks going to prison for some decades.
In a still strongly Catholic Italy, the Church also entered the scene. L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican's media organ, accuses him of being a "Saturno ammodernato che divora i propri figli", where "figli" means drivers.
After a moment of confusion, so unusual for the Drake, touched deeply by the tragedy, Ferrari launches a counter-attack, in what will be the most difficult battle of his legendary existence.
In a crescendo of emotions until the final epilogue, like a race at three hundred per hour, the book takes the original trial documents consulted for the first time in their entirety and reads like an author's legal thriller.
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