Maigret is called to a crime scene at Lock 14 on the Marne Canal, near Dizy, when a woman's body is found in the stable of a canalside inn.

The woman is identified as Mary Lampson, wife of an English "milord" travelling through France on his yacht, the Southern Cross.

When a second member of the Southern Cross's party is murdered, Maigret has to uncover the secrets of all concerned, including the mild-mannered carter of the Providence.

I brought it to Paris, where I had it christened (on a whim) by a priest at Notre Dame...then Belgium, Holland, Germany".

[3] The story has been adapted four times for film and television: in English in 1963 as The Crime at Lock 14, with Rupert Davies in the main role; in Japanese in 1978 as Keishi to Minami Jūjisei ("the Southern Cross") with Kinya Aikawa; in French in 1980 as Le Charretier de "La Providence" with Jean Richard, and again in 2001 as Maigret et la croqueuse de diamants ("Maigret and the gold-diggers (lit.