The maid of a clandestine brothel in Marseille is found murdered. The inspector Sergil, in charge of the investigation will employ somewhat particular methods in order to unmask the assassin.
Inspector Sergil is assigned the mission to protect the dictator of Santa Juanita during his stay in France and - it goes without saying -trouble begins at once, as of his journey in the fast train from Paris to Marseilles. A lot of opponents of all kinds are intent on liquidating the dictator and they do not particularly like to have Sergil in their way. When Bijou, the inspector's fiancée, accepts to serve as a bodyguard for the dictator, she is soon kidnapped and will not be released until Sergil tells them about their enemy's hiding place. Where the shoe pinches is that the dictator has disappeared and Sergil does not even know where he is.
Chatelard, one of Viscount de Kerlec's guests, has died in mysterious conditions. The police initiates an investigation and sends detective-inspector Pauc to de Kerlec's manor. Pauc decides to mingle with the viscount's guests , who are all likely to have committed the murder. Among them, there is Jacques Mauclerc, a naval officer, and a seedy character named Bartoli, in fact a spy in search of secret documents. Pauc will end up untangling the web during a dramatic séance.
During a crossing, Professor Rabas, a famous tamer, meets a certain Raymonde whom he brings back with him to his circus. The presence of the young woman leads to disagreement between Rabas and his younger brother, Léo; she suggests to the latter to enter the cage of the untamed lions, where he is injured. Rabas and Leo understood the lesson; Raymonde is hunted like an evil beast, and calm returns to the circus.
Inspector Sergil is a detective comedy. Sergil, inspector of the P.J., investigates three crimes, helped by two pretty women, Bijou and Nadège.
Happily married to Sandrine, Pierre Fouques also known as Raboliot is the father of two young children. He would live a steady life hadn't he a passion for poaching, which gets him into a lot of trouble. Because of the nastiness of Bourrel, the gamekeeper, of the jealousy of other poachers, he becomes a hunted man who, in order to defend himself, is driven to commit a crime.
A young man, Robert Dupont, with suicidal tendencies and a bit stupid to boot, is saved by a stranger who pretends to be a well-known banker. This stranger then entrusts him with a suitcase full of mysterious documents, which he asks him to take with him to Indochina. But in reality, the suitcase is stuffed with banknotes from a scam.
In 1906, François left the Basque country with his father, who had decided to settle in Argentina following an incident between him and Esteban. Having become a powerful industrialist, he returned to France in 1940 on the occasion of the signing of a contract. He learns that the Haut-le-Vent estate, occupied by his aunt Anna, is his. Greeted with mistrust by the villagers, he manages to make himself sympathetic and decides to stay on the estate with Gisèle, Esteban's daughter.
This murder mystery is set in a Parisian cafe and examines the mysterious murder of a famed journalist and extortionist who is killed at his table in the cafe. Though the prime suspects are gathered together( including his wife and her lover, the gun-runner, the creditor, and a playboy) and all of them have motives, none of them did it. So whodunit?