Gustave Allevaire is on the run, guilty of a number of petty crimes. He is spotted in Lyon, and that night he steals his aunt’s silverware. On the very same night, five hundred kilometres away in Bordeaux, he is identified during a break-in. Meanwhile he is murdered in Marseille, seven hundred kilometres away. All in the same night, and all at exactly the same time, in three cities hundreds of kilometers apart. How is this possible? Monsieur Allou, the examining magistrate in Lyon, is so intrigued he decides to take a vacation and work undercover. During the course of the investigation, which includes a disappearance of the elusive Allevaire from a locked and guarded building, his theories keep changing like a kaleidoscope until the final totally unexpected solution.