Monsieur Hire (Michel Blanc) is an ageing, truculent loner who indulges in peeping-tomism. Hire worships a beautiful neighbor (Sandrine Bonnaire) from afar. He is vaguely aware that the girl is involved in a recent murder, but this is only a minor setback--after all, Hire himself has been suspected in a homicide case. "Who will do what to whom and when?" is the main question in this adaptation of the novel Les Fian?ailles de Monsieur Hire by Georges Simenon, that was previously filmed in 1946 as Panique.