Fausto enters an orphanage and is initially bullied, but then makes friends with a new bunkmate, Raymond. He is apprenticed to Mietek, a tailor in the Jewish quarter, who teaches him the trade. Fausto charms everyone in the quarter, and falls in love with Tonie, the mechanic's daughter. He starts making outrageous suits for publicity and, after dressing Tonie, decides that he wants to be a famous couturier.
Edward is an editor in a small English publishing house. The story concerns what happens when he receives a very good manuscript from Nicholas, an old friend, who up until now has been a hack writer. The manuscript sheds light on events both men lived through, and Edward comes to the conviction that it reveals that it was Nicholas who raped the woman Edward loved, and that he is therefore responsible for her subsequent suicide. Very carefully, he plots his revenge.
In 1951, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the private detective Nestor Burma was commissioned by an insurance company to find stolen jewelery. The deal seemed easy and Burma got an appointment with a well-known black trumpet player in the neighborhood who could provide him with information. But the musician does not come and we find him murdered. The investigation becomes more complicated and Nestor must find an alibi so as not to be suspected of the crime.
