Simenon grew up in Liège in Belgium, but some elements of the novel are autobiographical: the young journalist who becomes interested in seedy nightlife, his weak mother, and his father with a heart condition.

[1] The story is seen from the point of view of Jean Cholet, a young journalist with the Gazette de Nantes, who lives with his parents.

He attends an official banquet one evening, where he gets drunk and goes on to the night club L'Âne Rouge ("The Red Donkey"); he is intrigued by Speelman, a theatre company manager.

In the meantime there are other events: his father suffers a heart attack and is in bed for several days before returning to his office job; Cholet attends the scene of a ship collision in the harbour.

Although the family understands that the fatal heart attack happened at work, Cholet is privately told of the actual circumstance.