The merchant Yquem buys his dear wife a beautiful jewel with matching earnings in a place where the city's underworld trades in fake and stolen jewelry. By chance, Yquem spots a man with whom his wife had an affair in the past. Yquem follows him to a hotel where he will write him a letter imitating his wife's hand writing. The letter invites the man to a public place where Yquem can spy on them and try to discover whether there is still something between them.