Inspector Jules Maigret takes to the streets and bars of Cannes searching for clues to the apparently motiveless murder of a poor, middle-aged Australian named William Brown, a retired Australian sheep rancher. Maigret must resist the beguiling vistas of the resort paradise of Antibes to concentrate on the murder. For 10 years after deserting his wife and children, Brown had lived with his mistress Gina Martini and her meddlesome mother.

MAIGRET IN MONTMARTRE: Two brutal stranglings and a beautiful corpse lead Inspector Maigret into an underworld of striptease artists and morphine addicts as he tries to uncover the past of a shadowy countess. (#36 in series, also published as "Maigret and the strangled stripper' and 'Maigret at Picratt's') MAIGRET'S MISTAKE: A young woman named Lulu, who has a history of brushes with the law and once lived on the streets, is found murdered in Paris....

An anonymous letter, that tells of a soon to be committed murder, takes inspector Maigret to the home of a prominent lawyer on his search for the letter's author.

Maigret is touring the United States to observe American policing methods, when a visit to a coroner's inquest in Arizona draws him into the tragic story of a young woman and five airmen in the desert.