Intrigue

Paris police detective Cassin has a well needed vacation at a rural inn, where the owners' adult daughter shows interest in him but she has a jealous boyfriend. Will Cassin need his skills?

A renowned, relentless Paris detective takes his first vacation in 11 years at a small inn in the French countryside. There he meets and falls in love with the hotelier's daughter, who is betrothed to a neighboring farmer but hopes to marry him and move to Paris. On the evening of their engagement, both the fiancée and the farmer disappear. What has happened to them? Who is responsible? Can the famed detective apply his talents to a rural mystery?—klg19

The commissioner is worried that his best detective, Henri Cassin, needs a vacation, but Henri is nowhere to be found. He turns up in the office, having been out wandering through the streets of Paris. He is escorted to a small village where he is welcomed as a celebrity. A middle-aged widow, Bridelle, seems to have eyes for him, but Mama, the keeper of the inn, schemes with her daughter, Nanette, to entice the great man.

Nanette is engaged to a young farmer, Leon, but she does not want to stay forever in the village. She wants to live in Paris and see the world. Henri takes Nanette to the countryside. He is clearly falling for her, despite their age difference. But Leon catches Nanette kissing Henri, and he warns him to leave her alone.

While Pierre is out of town, Henri and Nanette fall in love and become engaged. At their engagement party, Leon returns. He warns Henri that he will never let Nanette go, that he will follow them to Paris. He storms out of the inn, with Nanette following him.

The next morning, Nanette has not returned. Soon thereafter, her body is discovered floating in the river. Henri is asked by the local police to help with the case. Upon examining the body, he realizes that she died of strangulation, and was thrown in the river afterwards somewhere upstream. Leon's farm is upstream. The police go to the farm where they discover Leon's body, a jar of poison grasped tightly in his hand. Henri realizes that he could not have poisoned himself. In fact, he too has been strangled. The only clue they can find is single footprint hidden under the body, overlooked by the killer.

The next day, a note is discovered under Herni's door that reads, "Another will die." Henri attempts to follow the clues, but cannot identify the killer. The notepaper is common. The handwriting is not recognized by the local banker.

Then, the innkeeper comes to him. He has received a note intended for his wife stating that she will be the next to die. Henri reassures him that murderers don't give warnings, but when they go to Mama's room, she too is dead.

Unable to solve the case, Henri returns to Paris. He tells the commissioner that he has failed, but he has built a picture of who the killer must be, based on the clues he has so far. The commissioner calls for a sketch artist who jokingly suggests that the sketch (minus a face) could easily be Henri himself. Henri tells him to put his face on the drawing. He announces that all the clues point to himself. His shoe fits the shoe print. He had the motive and the opportunity. He has no recollection of the murders, but he turns himself in. The commissioner places a guard at his door.

The commissioner discusses the case with the doctor, who states that it is entirely possible that Henri suffers from "schizophrenia," a split personality. His forgetfulness (one reason he was sent on vacation) could have been an early clue. When they go to his room to talk to him, Henri has knocked out the guard and disappeared.

Henri takes the train to the village. There, he confronts the innkeeper, who had not approved of his daughter's engagement to him. He attempts to strangle him, but the commissioner shows up and shoots him through the window. He dies, having solved the case.