[1] The original French-language version Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien appeared in 1931: it is one of the earliest novels by Simenon featuring the detective Jules Maigret.

In the story, Maigret follows to Bremen, Germany, a man who is behaving oddly and then commits suicide; his investigation leads him to a group of men, now having various careers, who knew each other when they were students in Liège, Belgium.

At the police station in Liège, Maigret finds a report for that time: Émile Klein was found hanged on the door of the church of St Pholien.

The idea of the story relates to a period in Simenon's own past, with many of the characters, setting, and names closely based on the author's own experiences as a young adult in his hometown.

He was born and spent his early life in Liège, and was one of a group of young men in the city, calling themselves "La Caque", who had a bohemian lifestyle; they met to read aloud the works of writers which interested them, and they questioned conventional morality.

One member, a painter and friend of Simenon named Joseph Kleine, was found hanging from the door of St Pholien's church: it was apparently suicide, but murder was suspected.