"Manfred Baumann is a loner. He has always lived in the nondescript French town of Saint-Louis. Shy and awkward, a man of habit, he spends his days working in the local bank and his evenings in the drab Restaurant de la Cloche where he can surreptitiously observe Adele Bedeau, its sullen but alluring waitress. Until, one day, Adele vanishes. Georges Gorski, a detective haunted by his failure to solve one of his first murder cases, is called in to investigate. Manfred is rattled, and the careful routine of his life starts to crumble around him. And that’s when he meets Alice Tarrou. Brunet, Raymond, (Fictitious character), 1953-1992. | Disappeared persons -- Fiction. | Missing persons -- Investigation -- Fiction.