Se produce el bárbaro asesinato de dos mujeres, madre e hija, en un apartamento de una populosa calle de París. Las primeras pesquisas que lleva a cabo la brigada de investigaciones no dan resultado alguno, evidenciándose la impotencia de la policía para esclarecer los hechos. Finalmente se hace cargo del asunto un detective aficionado, M. Dupin, quien tras intensa y brillante investigación, ofrece una explicación extraordinaria. The story surrounds the baffling double murder of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter in the Rue Morgue, a fictional street in Paris. Newspaper accounts of the murder reveal that the mother's throat is so badly cut that her head is barely attached and the daughter, after being strangled, has been stuffed into the chimney. The murder occurs in an inaccessible room on the fourth floor locked from the inside. Neighbors who hear the murder give contradictory accounts, each claiming that he heard the murderer speaking a different language. The speech was unclear, the witnesses say and they admit to not knowing the language they are claiming to have heard.