One of Simenon's penetrating psychological studies (Donadieu's Will, etc.), first published in 1945 in France. It examines the barren, impoverished life of Dominique, a general's gently bred daughter, now 40, who had nursed her demanding father in his last years. Through a relative's charity, she occupies a Paris apartment, part of which she rents to the Cailles, a young married couple. Her meager assets allow for no frivolity, and her days are spent doing mundane chores; spying, shamefaced, on her vibrant tenants; and, through her window, watching the life of the Rouets in the apartment opposite. The elder Madame Rouet is endlessly at war with her sickly son's vivacious wife Antoinette. Dominique is a secret witness to the son's dramatic death and to Antoinette's ensuing struggles to escape the stifling household. What happens when Antoinette finally moves out and the Cailles leave for larger quarters carries an air of inevitability.... A somber story marked by the author's acute perceptions of human nature and his lean, elegant writing style."