Justin, a boy who is living in a small town in the
Rhône-Alpes region, is awaken in the middle of the night. His mother, Mireille is crying and his widower grandfather, Victor, tells the boy that his father, Ivan, is dead. The next day, Alex, Justin's uncle and Ivan's little brother, arrives for the funeral accompanied by a woman, Juliette. Justin notice the tension between people. He takes his father's gun and hides it. The story flashes backward and forward to explain what led up to Ivan's death. Alex, who has rebelled against his family by becoming a cop, works in the deprived La Duchere district of
Lyon. He begins with his encounter, a year before Ivan's death, when he first meets Juliette, who is brought to his office when she was arrested for shoplifting. He lets her off. He sees her again one day when he visits the sleazy nightclub run by his big brother, Ivan. Ivan is a crime boss and runs a popular club with a drag revue, funding his business through a stolen-auto ring headed up by Jimmy, who is Juliette's brother. The encounter between the siblings on opposite sides of the law is tense, they barely get along. Ivan is happy to show Alex that he is doing much better than him on the wrong side of the law. After their second encounter Alex and Juliette start a tortured affair beginning to meet regularly for sex. He is not in love with her, and their relationship is complicated by the girl's emotional and sexual involvement with Marie, a professor of philosophy. Alex spies on Marie. Ivan hears about Juliette's relationship with Alex and threatens her. Ivan and his gang, including Juliette, plan the theft of cars in a railway deposit. The heist at the railway marshaling yard goes disastrously wrong when Ivan is shot dead, along with a security guard. Juliette, who had been coerced into participating, against Jimmy's wishes, is distraught by Ivan's death. Emotional imbalance and self-destructive, Juliette tries to commit suicide twice, first while staying with her brother and later while visiting Marie, after Ivan's death. Marie has her interned in a psychiatric hospital to recuperate. Alex asks Marie for the address of Juliette's clinic, but she has disappeared. In search of Juliette, Marie visits her housing estate apartment. After Ivan's cremation, Alex makes an effort to connect with his nephew without much success. At a local fair, Justin threatens Alex with an air-rifle. Justin learns the truth about his father's death from his grandfather Victor. Marie visits Alex, who tells her Juliette was involved in the heist and that he is trying to find her. Alex and Marie develop an uneasy friendship as they bid, from a distance, to protect Juliette. Later Alex visits Marie and finds she has become a recluse, writing a book about Juliette. He tells her Juliette is safe because the police are looking for a boy. Later Alex hears that Marie has committed suicide as he receives her manuscript and the tapes of Juliette's voice in the post. Alex goes to see Juliette in
Marseille, but leaves her alone when he sees she is well from a distance. She has built a new life for herself and works in a bookshop. Justin has taken after his father and grandfather and does not like his uncle. By contrast, Justin gets along very well with Jimmy. Jimmy decides to marry Ivan's widow, Mireille. ==Cast==