The story opens in media res, or in the middle of things. Doctor Bianchon is conceding to the other dinner guests' requests that he tell one of the "appalling stories in [his] collection." Noting that the audience had been primed by a previous story, and that the late hour of 2:00 a.m. seemed ideal, the "obliging doctor bowed and silence reigned." The dinner guests then disappear from the story until the final sentences, and Doctor Bianchon tells the story in which he features as much as a listener as a narrator and lets three other storytellers relate the story of "La Grande Bretèche" to his listeners.

Setting the scene, Bianchon describes a dramatically ruined estate just on the outskirts of the town of Vendome, where he was staying to care for a rich patient. Revealing his sensitive, even poetic, nature the doctor reveals that...