Louis Thouret is the prime example of a modest petit bourgeois who travels from his small suburban apartment to one of the countless Paris offices every day and returns from work to his wife and child at six o'clock in the evening on time. But Thouret leads an orderly life only by outward appearances. When he is found one day stabbed to death on a park bench in a remote street, Maigret discovers that the small employee has led an adventurous double life. Based on the 41st Maigret novel Maigret et l'homme du banc (1952), which appeared in Le Figaro as a serialised story in 29 parts between 31 January and 3 March 1953. The German title was Maigret und der Mann auf der Bank.