Xavier Durmont young deputy newly elected, is charged by a representative of the Court of Auditors to investigate a dubious case of waste disposal involving a minister. He becomes then the target of slander orchestrated by the agency of a mysterious Armand.

The old Mr. Esbirol, a passionate bookseller of crime fiction, had waited for a long time that the three conditions necessary for committing a perfect crime materialize : murder, preferably by strangulation of an anonymous bystander walking in a deserted street.

The story of a septuagenarian, recently divorced, which in its reconstruction desire and quest for a new companion will rediscover the small pleasures of life and the art of seduction.