'Florentin pulled one of those faces which had once amused his classmates so much and disarmed the teachers . . .

Maigret didn't dare to ask why he had come to see him. He studied him, struggling to believe that so many years had passed . . .

He was so used to acting the fool that his face automatically assumed comical expressions. But his face was still greyish, his eyes anxious.'

A visit from a long-lost schoolmate who has fallen on hard times forces Maigret to unpick a seedy tangle of love affairs in Montmartre, and to confront the tragedy of a wasted life.

This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret's Boyhood Friend.