Vanina - Un vicequestore a Catania

Deputy Commissioner Vanina Guarrasi and her trusted team investigate the suspicious discovery of some pills in the tubs of a famous ice cream shop, an unusual and curious fact that turns out to be the premise of a much more complex crime. Even Vanina's private life resembles a puzzle: on one side there is Manfredi, the romantic doctor who tries to make a dent in her heart. On the other, the anti-mafia magistrate Paolo Malfitano, the great love of her life, who however she seems to want to leave behind.

The black sand of Etna submerges Catania and Vanina is forced to deal with the end of her story with Paolo, while a corpse resurfaced from the past demands her attention. In an uninhabited villa, the mummified corpse of a woman is found: it is Maria Cutò, a prostitute who died fifty years earlier. Vanina discovers that Gaetano, the man she was supposed to run away with, had also been killed there, perhaps killed by the mafia. But what is the truth? Is it pure coincidence? The case had been solved quickly at the time but the policewoman discovers a terrible past.

A new case brings Vanina and Manfredi back together. It was the doctor himself who saw two suspicious men throwing a heavy suitcase soaked in blood into the sea, so Vanina will find herself investigating the murder of a girl that took place in a villa. The victim is the lawyer Lorenza Iannino, of whom no other traces can be found. The villa turns out to be owned by the lawyer Elvio Ussaro, a shady prince of the bar, but a macabre discovery will overturn the course of the investigation. Meanwhile, just when Vanina opens her heart to Manfredi, a family commitment brings her face to face with Paolo again and the unresolved issues of their relationship.

Vanina investigates the death of a man, murdered in the airport parking lot. The victim, a sixty-year-old Cuban with American and Italian citizenship, was an entrepreneur living in Switzerland. Vanina discovers that he was a prominent member of the American mafia.

Vanina wakes from a nightmare after receiving mafia threats. In an underground pub, the body of Professor Vincenzo La Barbera is found submerged in river water. The man had opposed local criminal clans and worked with a priest to help keep young people off the streets. Although the priest claims La Barbera was beaten by two criminals, the investigation reveals deeper secrets linked to a former commune, decades‑old deaths, and a family inheritance dispute. At the same time, Vanina's personal life is shaken by new developments in the long‑running investigation into her father's murder, culminating in an armed attack on a magistrate's armored car.

Vanina Guarrasi investigates a new murder case that draws her into a closed and morally complex environment, where appearances of righteousness conceal personal ambition and hidden loyalties. As the inquiry unfolds, Vanina must navigate conflicting testimonies, unspoken power dynamics, and the tension between faith, authority, and human frailty. The case resonates with her own inner conflicts, as the unresolved threat linked to her father's murder continues to cast a shadow over her work and personal life, reinforcing the season's central theme: the difficulty of seeking truth in places built on silence and trust.

During the religious celebrations of Saint Agatha in Catania, Vanina investigates a murder committed amid the sacred procession. The case forces her to balance public devotion, superstition, and hidden rivalries, while the threat linked to her father's killer continues to loom over her personal and professional life.

The murder of a young volunteer involved in anti‑drug outreach leads Vanina to uncover a criminal network exploiting vulnerable youths. The investigation exposes painful truths about the past and brings the season's emotional and narrative arcs to a climax. The term carusi refers to young boys, historically exploited as child laborers in Sicily, giving the episode strong symbolic weight.