Shortly after Arsène Lupin visits a Normandy château, a corpse is discovered. Astonishment... because, as Isidore Beautrellet, a young reporter sent to the scene of the crime, points out, Arsène Lupin steals, but never kills. A clever reporter, so clever in fact that he discovers the murderer: the Comte de Gesvres. Lupin, seduced by Beautrellet's perspicacity, invites him to witness his next exploit: to seize the medieval statues of the Château de Gesvres and replace them with casts.