The Vaucrose case takes place in Saint-Pons-la-Calm, a village in the Gard department in southern France. The rich Madame de Vaucrose is found strangled in her home during the night of August 23-24, 1898. Because of his cantankerous character and because she disinherited him, her son is suspected of the murder of his castrating mother. But the case is finally dismissed. In spite of that, Barthélémy Auguste Gayte, a swindler, is accused of complicity in the murder of Madame de Vaucrose. The defense tries in vain to argue that it is impossible to condemn a man for complicity in a murder whose main culprit is unknown. Gayte is preposterously sentenced to 20 years of hard labor.
—Guy Bellinger