A missing harbormaster turns up, only to be murdered on his first night home, in another captivating tale featuring Georges Simenon's intrepid Inspector Maigret.
A man, clad in brand-new clothes with no identification, is found on the streets of Paris. Mute, he also has a bullet hole in his head that has been perfectly patched up—altogether a strange fellow, yet affable. His maid Julie soon turns up to claim him; he is Captain Yves Joris, the harbormaster at Ouistreham. Maigret accompanies the pair safely back home, but the next morning, the captain dies, poisoned. Maigret decides to stay, pacing the thickly fog-obscured docks, striking up conversations with busy figures. The new harbormaster doesn't know why three hundred thousand francs would have been transferred into Joris's account. Mayor Grandmaison has an attitude that suggests he'd rather be mingling with the town's social elite. Julie herself is loath to share anything relating to her brother, the secretive ex-convict Big Louis, for fear of appearances. There's a nebulous danger lurking in this little town—things are leaving a bad impression for Maigret, and he won't rest until he learns what happened to the captain.