In the small Southern Italian village of Accendura, three local boys, Bruno, Michele, and Tonino are engaged in mischief. Giuseppe Barra (Vito Passeri) a local simpleton and peeping tom, who is seen spying on two swinging couples, is taunted by the boys.
When Bruno goes missing, reporters converge on the town. One of them is Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian) a sharp-witted journalist from Rome whose insights into the case are acknowledged by the regional police commissioner (Virginio Gazzolo) working with village chief of police Captain Modesti (Ugo D'Alessio).
While researching his story Martelli, who's also spending time with local thrill-seeking girl Patrizia, interviews the local priest, Don Alberto. Elsewhere, Captain Modesti and his aide meet with Francesco (George Wilson), an old hermit living in a stone hut who practices black magic and offers charms and potions to the superstitious. He tells the police he has passed his knowledge of black magic to his disciple, a woman nicknamed "La Maciara" (the witch).
In the end Don Alberto is revealed to be the killer and is caught trying to throw his little sister off a cliff. In a fistfight with Martelli, Don Alberto loses his footing and falls off the cliff to a gruesome death.
What is the setting?
small Southern Italian village of Accendura