Maigret responds to a call from a young woman in the middle of the night, but he then finds himself accused of raping her. He is forced to clear his name, and search for what had really taken place that night. Cases of the hard-working Parisian detective, Chief Inspector Jules Maigret.

Maigret is under heavy pressure from his superiors and the press because he has failed to catch a serial killer of women with no common feature, except their hair. Maigret sets a trap using undercover police women. The trap yields a clue to a suspect with a wife and mother, both very possessive, just as the decision to replace him as lead investigator brings the pressure to a boiling point.

One morning an agitated man calls the Police judiciaire asking for Maigret. He claims he’s being followed by someone trying to kill him. Before Maigret can get the details he hangs up, calls back again from various cafés until the calls finally stop. That night his body is found, his face badly beaten and has been stabbed to death. Riddled with guilt for not having saved “his” dead man, Maigret is determined to find the murderer.