Plot summary

Against the backdrop of the daunting housing shortage in 1970s Paris, and the suspicious suicide attempt of the young Egyptologist, Simone Choule, the mousy naturalised Frenchman, Trelkovsky, decides to try his luck at moving into the desperate woman's now-vacant flat. But, as the new renter does his best to comply with the draconian rules of the gloomy tenement building's landlord, Monsieur Zy, and learn to live with the spiteful neighbours' insidious intimidation, more and more, Trelkovsky finds himself enmeshed in a real, or perhaps, imagined web of conspiracy. Now, as Trelkovsky succumbs to the malevolent building's urban paranoia, hearing voices and seeing things, he becomes convinced that the building's other occupants are plotting to kill him. Are Trelkovsky's fears justified, or is the tenant starting to lose his fragile grip on reality?—Nick Riganas