Not only did Maigret fall off a train in the middle of the night, violently pushed out by a stranger, but he now finds himself without his identification papers, luggage, or his pipe, lying incapacitated with a double sprain in a clinic in the village of Sainte-Marguerite... And that’s not all: this village with a quiet and uneventful history has suddenly been plunged into collective hysteria. After two murders, residents are in a state of constant fear, uncertainty, and suspicion...