One evening, the bell rings at Commissioner Maigret's house. Minister of Construction Puan asks the commissioner to come to his apartment urgently, keeping this request a secret from the police authorities. At the meeting, it turns out that a report disappeared from the minister's apartment, with which Puan was supposed to speak at a government meeting two days later.

Investigating the murder of a resident of the suburbs Louis Touré, Maigret faces the indifference and cruelty of the people surrounding Louis in recent years. The diagnosis and the verdict — all guilty.

Follows the service of Lieutenant Colonel Lubentsov as commandant of the German city of Lauterburg in the first days after the end of the Great Patriotic War.