"Horace Grondin, deputy head of the Surete is in fact Charles Bassicousse, sentenced sixteen years earlier for a murder he did not commit and obsessed with wreaking his revenge on Antoine Tarpagnan, the man he believes did commit the crime. Tarpagnan, an army captain, has fallen in love with Gabriella Pucci, the mistress of Paris's greatest villain. As Tarpagnan searches the underworld for Gabriella, Grondin searches for him. "--BOOK JACKET.