[1] In the Pigalle and Barbès neighborhoods of Paris, Anita, a bartender, keeps frequent company with Jocko, a West Indian preacher, and Willy, an aspiring kickboxer from Hungary, but takes particular care and worry about Bobby, a teenager selling "neige" (heroin), in the midst of a visiting Christmas carnival full of games of chance and strippers.

Bobby is identified to narcotics detectives by Bruno, a neighborhood taxi driver, whose wife is in prison for shooting an earlier dealer who sold their son a fatal dosage; they have promised early parole for her in exchange for the tip.

With this killing, several residents of the neighborhood are cut off from their regular doses, including Betty, a trans cabaret performer.

Hoping to stave off a fatal withdrawal, Anita seeks help from Jocko and Willy to find another source of heroin to keep Betty alive.

Jocko proceeds through a series of random people before finally locating the local provider, an Arab shopkeeper, who agrees to sell a quantity to him.