[citation needed] Taking a prostitute to a park after drinking, Paul Wagner is attacked by unknown assailants, who leave him with a serious head injury and strangle her.

Unable to manage the family champagne business, it is run for him by Christine Belling and her assistant Jacqueline.

On a business trip to Hamburg with Christine's husband Christopher (Perkins), he gets drunk and goes to a park with a prostitute, who is found strangled in the morning.

Christopher, who now owns the business, turns up with a striking blonde, whom Paul remembers seeing in Hamburg and at the artist's party.

[2] In a New York Times review, critic Vincent Canby wrote: "Mr. Chabrol ... has made a film that has the shape and structure of a murder mystery, but which is, essentially, a funny, sardonic social drama.