The first novel of the cycle about Commissioner Georges Dupin. The surroundings of the town of Concarno in Brittany have long been loved by the artistic bohemia - still, because the great impressionists once lived and worked there... But this time someone used art of a completely different kind - the art of killing and going unnoticed. Who was prevented by the harmless old man Pierre-Louis Penneck, a favorite of Parisian celebrities staying at his Central Hotel? And after all, this murder is only the first, followed by another, at first glance - just as unmotivated...