The youthful private-eye-in-training returns. This time he's off to the French countryside, eager to solve his first real case. Unfortunately, he's more Clouseau than Spade.

Jerome gets his first true case when he receives an emergency summons from the Baron de Verville, who claims his life is in danger. When Jerome arrives at the Baron's villa, however, his client is nowhere to be found, and the young detective is told to return home. As if that weren't suspicious enough, his doubts grow when he meets the villa's other occupants, which include the Baron's two adult children, who don't seem the least concerned about their father's disappearance. The gothic architecture, secret passages, hidden closets, and suspicious characters are the perfect ingredients for murder. It's like something out of a board game, and Jerome K. Jerome Bloche is right in the middle of it.

Presented for the first time in English.