The film stars Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider, with François Périer and Georges Wilson in supporting roles.

Born into a wealthy family of French vintners, Max is a loner who devoted himself entirely to his obsession: the arrest of criminals.

This failure is still fresh in his mind when he meets Abel who has become a scrap thief and plunders construction sites with a small band of hoodlums around Nanterre.

[3] He pretends to be the director of a small bank branch which receives significant amounts of money at regular intervals.

Later in the police station, Rosinsky (the top cop in the bank's district) reveals to Max that he wants all collaborators brought to justice, including Lily.