Who is Pietr the Latvian? Is he a gentleman thief? A Russian drinking absinthe in a grimy bar? A married Norwegian sea captain? A twisted corpse in a train bathroom? Or is he all of these men? Inspector Jules Maigret tracks a mysterious adversary along a trail of bodies... The circumstances surrounding a murdered man's death all seem fake: the name the deceased was travelling under, his presumed profession - and, more worryingly, his family's reaction. Maigret must tease out the strands of truth from the tangle before him in order to construct an accurate portrait of the late Monsieur Gallet...