A communal colony of artists and writers- idealistically dedicated- find their utopia soured by material motives, wives and just women, two murders and a series of perverse, practical jokes. Although with the appropriation of a manuscript as tangible evidence against one of the members, Commissaire Saturnin Dax continues his search for a sex killer, finds his intuitions rewarded. Standard procedure and prosecution, in spite of the elaborate overlay of epithet.