In a wooded area near the town of Vervac, Maigret is shot by an unknown person. At the hospital, the inspector hears that he was initially thought to be an evildoer, the "Vervac madman" who has been bullying the girls in the area for some time. Maigret first thinks that the real culprit shot him, but soon has to change his mind. His astonishing finding: one of five gentlemen of the "better society" of the village must be the assassin, either Mayor Drevet, Police Inspector Fouché, Doctor Dr. Rivaud, hotel owner Gaston or even his own friend Leduc, whom Maigret actually wanted to visit before the attack ... Based on the 16th Maigret novel Le fou de Bergerac (1932). In German, the novel was first published as Maigret und der Verrückte, and in a new translation as Maigret und der Verrückte von Bergerac.