Willy Ferriere is dead broke and his mistress costs a lot. One day, he says in a pub that he would give 100,000 francs to get rid of his wealthy aunt. Someone lets him know it's a deal. The aunt is murdered, and a poor chap is manipulated to be the perfect suspect. But Superintendant Maigret feels something is wrong.
Robert de Houdan is indecisiveness itself. He keeps hesitating, shilly-shallying and never reach any decision in any way. So much so that he finds himself on the verge of ruin and falls prey to Boucherot, a greedy loan-shark who puts pressure on him to marry Yvonne Herbelier. Boucherot is assisted in his undertaking by baroness Pépin, a typical matchmaker. But Robert, who does not know the young lady, shies away from her.
Jérôme Crainquebille, is an ageing vegetable seller who has sold groceries from his cart in in Paris for over 40 years. One day, he is harassed by a policeman who insists that he moves on. When he protests, Crainquebille is arrested, supposedly for swearing at the policeman.
As Jean is walking across the countryside in search of work, he helps and befriends a young woman, Françoise, who is having trouble controlling the cow that she is leading. Jean finds work at a local farm, but he soon finds himself caught in the middle of the conflicts in Françoise's family.
A moneylender kidnaps the young son of a rich widow as part of a plot to cheat her of her fortune. The boy is sent away on a fishing boat with the intention of drowning him, but a kindly old fisherman intervenes.
