"The Angel of Numbers" is based loosely on the life of the Italian anti-Mafia crusader Judge Giovanni Falcone (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Falcone). Inspired by Alexander Stille's exhaustive 1995 non-fiction book, "Excellent Cadavers," "The Angel of Numbers, " tells the story of an Italian Judge, Paolo Borromeo, who takes on the mafia in 1982 Italy after a man dressed as a monk is found dead in Milan, clutching a piece of paper with the number "11" on it. Soon, other cadavers start showing up, each with a number counting down to zero and each higher up in the Mafia hierarchy, while at the same time, Claudio Schiavetta, a semi-mythical mafioso, turns himself in to authorities in Sao Paolo and says we will speak only to Borromeo. What happens next is a struggle for life and death against the Italian Mafia as Borromeo tries to understand the connection between Schiavetta and the invisible Mafia war taking place in Italy.