After her fiancé is arrested Claire finds herself alone and forced to find work. She is hired by a country squire, Etienne de Montenoy, as the tutor of his goddaughter. It does not take long before Montenoy falls for her but a little longer before the young woman, reluctant at first, understands Etienne loves her truly and then requites his love. Etienne lives so happily with her that he decides to make her his heir. Shortly after, he is murdered by poison... Who committed the crime ? It is up to police inspector Fiori to find out and the suspects are many. Claire is under suspicion of course, for obvious reasons. But she is not the only one. Why couldn't it be Angèle, the victim's housekeeper and former mistress, once accused of having murdered another of her employers ? Or Raymond, Claire's ex fiancé, who came to the manor to get her back and was rejected by her? Or else Thierry de Villesec, Etienne's brother-in-law and ruined squire? Or even Charles Tramillet, Etienne's other brother-in law, who hurried suspiciously to the village pharmacy allegedly to have a drug prescribed to the sick man carried out?
—Guy Bellinger