Omertà

Omertà is a popular attitude, common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations like the Mafia, 'Ndrangheta, and Camorra are strong. A common definition is the "code of silence".

Omertà implies “the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime. Even if somebody is convicted for a crime he has not committed, he is supposed to serve the sentence without giving the police any information about the real criminal, even if that criminal has nothing to do with the Mafia himself. Within Mafia culture, breaking the oath of omertà is punishable by death.

A common misconception is that the Mafia created or instituted omertà. In fact, the code was adopted by Sicilians long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra (some observers date it in the 16th century as a way of opposing Spanish rule.

The book starts out with dying Don Zeno in Sicily. He leaves his infant son, Astorre, to Don Raymonde Aprile. Don Aprile lives in New York, where he is known as a fair but merciless ruler. The Don is a widower who does not want his children to go in to the 'family business'. To save them, he sends them to private boarding schools and only sees them on holidays. Astorre is the Don's favorite, above his children, but Astorre is picked as the one who must protect the family after he dies.

Don Aprile decides to take Astorre to Sicily one summer. Astorre is still a young child, but very bright. One day while the Don and his "nephew" are walking the streets of Sicily, when a small cosca kidnapps them. The captors treat the Don and Astorre very nicely, they just wanted the ransome. Don Aprile warned the kidnappers to let him go. "The rest of your lives will be miserable if you do not." The cosca did not realize how powerful the Don was. In the middle of the night, Bianco, a friend of the Don, rescues Aprile and Astorre. Don Aprile wanted to kill the kidnappers, but Astorre asked him not to. The don gives in, but makes the men his loyal servants.

When Astorre turns 16, he has a romantic affair with Nicole, the Don's youngest child and only daughter. Don Aprile orders the boy to move to London, where he will attend college, in order to stop the affair. Nicole is very upset about the whole thing, but Astorre obeys his uncle without argument. Astorre stays in London for a year with Mr. Pryor, a banker friend of the Don, and then lives in Sicily for ten years serving under Don Bianco, an old friend and protector of Don Aprile. During his time in London, he meets a young woman named Rosie, with whom he begins a romantic relationship, which he continues during his time in Sicily, until he finds out that she is not being exclusive.

When Astorre comes back, he has completed his training. Don Aprile decides it is time to retire from his dangerous business. He settles all his accounts and pays off all of his associates to make everyone happy. The only thing the retired Don keeps are his 10 international banks, which are completely legit. Aprile tells Astorre, and only Astorre, that when Aprile dies no matter what the banks should not be sold. Aprile wrote in his will that Astorre owns 51% of all voting stock in the bank, with the Don's children owning the rest. The interests from the bank will go to Astorre and the children evenly. In the meanwhile, Aprile starts a macaroni importing business for Astorre, which is also legit.

Valerius, the Don's oldest son, invites his family to his son's communion. After the communion commences, a car pulls out in front of the Don, and two men execute him via drive-by. With no public authorities securing the area, the killers are able to escape, and surprisingly enough (given the Don's reputation and power even after his retirement), there is nothing in the way of investigation after the hit.

Shortly after the hit, Timmona Portella, the only significant criminal organization remaining in New York, along with his international partners, try to negotiate with the Don's children and Astorre to purchase the banks from them in order to launder drug money. However, Astorre, with the majority share, consistently declines their offers, following the Don's wishes, claiming that he has found a love for the banking industry.

At first, the Don's children want to be as removed as possible and want to sell the banks, and, knowing nothing of his special relationship with their father, think Astorre naive and innocent due to his good-natured and friendly demeanor, and while baffled that their father left him the majority share, want to protect him. As time passes, though, they come to see that the Don had meant for his banks to secure their futures in their respective careers, and that it had done so thus far, with Valerius a high-ranking military officer, Marcantonio a prolific TV producer, and Nicole a successful lawyer in a prominent law firm. They also start to see that there is more to their "cousin" than they thought, and begin to suspect the reason why the Don left him in charge.

Drawing upon his years of training, having been groomed for such a situation as was presented to him, Astorre methodically finds each of the persons responsible for the death of his "uncle" and deals with them accordingly, consulting old friends of the Don for advice on how to proceed. At times during these consultations, the friends suggest selling the banks to avoid all the trouble that Astorre is going through even to stay alive, but are impressed when he politely rejects the idea, holding to his promise to the late Don, seeing in him determination and strength that they themselves lacked.

With the help of his contacts as well as his own cunning, Astorre strategically finds and punishes each of the people involved in Don Aprile's murder, from the hitmen who pulled the trigger (with some help from Rosie) up to the powerful figures who had ordered the attack and had been trying to get control of the Don's banks ever since. Thanks to his well-planned and well-executed strategy, Astorre is able to eliminate these enemies without getting into any trouble with the authorities, his last act of vengeance appearing on camera to be out of self-defense.

Two years later, Nicole has taken over as general manager of the banks, and her brothers are working on a film for TV recounting the life of their father, with Astorre as a consultant to help them with some of the details. Astorre eventually decides to move to Sicily permanently, and there marries a woman named Rosie, whom he had met many years before in England and had continued a non-exclusive romantic affair with, even enlisting her help in his vendetta against the Don's enemies. They have their first child, whom they name Raymonde Zeno, after Astorre's two fathers, and they consider the day that they will bring their son back to America.