Plot

Labbé is a quiet hatter in a small town, living with his handicapped wife who never goes out. His neighbour, a tailor, is fascinated by him. A series of female murders shakes the town. Is Labbé involved?

Labbé, a hatter in a French provincial town, leads the life of a respectable citizen but is in fact a serial murderer. The only person to suspect this is his neighbour Kachoudas, an Armenian tailor. After the hatter kills his own wife, he then kills six of her friends to stop them visiting her and prepares to murder a seventh when the intended victim dies naturally. As a substitute, he murders the maid. At the same time, Kachoudas is dying and Labbé confesses his crime to him. Then, after getting drunk he visits his favourite prostitute Berthe and kills her too, being found there in the morning by the police.—Christian Herzog von Donat

In the small La Rochelle town, Léon Labbé is a reputable hatter that lives with his crippled wife Mathilde and his maid Louise Chapus on the upper floors of his store. The boy Valentin works for him at the store. His neighbor across the street is the Armenian tailor Kachoudas, who lives with his wife and five children in the upper floors of his store. La Rochelle is shaken by a strangler that has already killed six women in the last weeks. Léon like to play card with his friends in a bar and is always followed by Kachoudas that suspects he might be the killer. Among his friends are the Chief of Police Caille, Dr. Chaudreau and the young journalist Jeantet, who has theories about the strangler. Soon we learn that Léon killed his wife two months ago and begin the crime spree killing her six best friends that usually visit her on her birthday. There is only the seventh woman missing, but he finds that she died of natural causes. Now the sick Léon looks for a replacement and Louise may be his next victim.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil