Italian President Mariano de Santis, a cautious centrist, is nearing the end of his term and a well-deserved retirement. His daughter, a lawyer and his closest aide, places a draft euthanasia bill on Mariano’s desk—a rather explosive issue, given Rome’s position at the very heart of the Catholic world. Also on the president’s desk are two petitions for clemency: one concerns an elderly man who strangled his wife, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and the other a young woman who stabbed her abusive husband to death.