Crime author Aldrich Tobias, the man the critics love to hate, sits in La Prison Santé, awaiting the guillotine. He's been convicted of a series of sex-murders involving women and girls. The President of the Republic has asked Detective-Sergeant Gilles Maintenon to take another look into the case. There's not much physical evidence, just a few mirror-like resemblances to chapters from Tobias's published works. According to Aldrich Tobias, 'The artist is mad—always mad." Maintenon is about to find out what that really means.