Upon discovery of a shard of what could be the Loc-Nar, a miner named Tyler becomes possessed with an insatiable hunger for power and a thirst for immortality. On his way to the planet of youth, Tyler wipes out most of a space colony and kidnaps a beautiful young woman. His only mistake is that he doesn't kill her sister, Julie, who then sets out on a mission of rescue and revenge.

After telling Maigret she overheard a plot to kill 'the countess' club singer Arlette is strangled and soon afterwards the body of an elderly, reclusive countess is also discovered. Maigret believes a third person was present when Arlette was killed and is anxious to trace a man called Oscar, whose name Arlette cried out in her sleep. Meanwhile young rent boy Philippe, who shared the countess's drug addiction, n survives an attempt on his life but is too scared to help the police. Maigret finds out that both the dead women once lived at a Nice hotel, where the countess's husband died in odd circumstances and where Oscar also worked. This leads him to track down Oscar and to the closure of his case. Written by don @ minifie-1