In the murder mystery Pigeon, Yancy Gallagher, a young American artist is invited to be a lecturer at the Italian university where he got his degree. Shortly after his arrival, he hears a radio broadcast about a bizarre murder and begins to suspect that the as-yet unidentified victim is the man he fell in love with during his student days. 
 
The realization that his ex has come to an untimely end, brings back a flood of memories from his first stay in Italy, the friendships he made and the bittersweet romance from which he has never fully recovered. Enlisting the help of his ex’s mother and a sympathetic, small- town detective, he endeavors to prove the dead man’s identity and apprehend his killer.
 
The closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous his search becomes.