The film stars Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Carole Bouquet as married couple Antoine and Hélène Dunan on a road trip to pick up their children and begin a vacation.

One summer mid-afternoon, Antoine (Darroussin) leaves his insurance firm job to meet up with his wife Hélène (Bouquet), as they are to fetch their kids (somewhere distant, but it is not explained exactly where they are or who they're with), and then head on to his in-laws' place in the Basque Country for two weeks' vacation.

They finally get on the road, but after a while the heavy traffic gets to Antoine, and he decides to get off the highway and take "the back way", at least to Tours.

Hélène reaches a breaking point when Antoine stops again, and threatens to drive on without him, telling him he can take the train and meet her later.

He takes the car keys and goes into the bar, where, as he drinks, he sees a TV news item about a man who has escaped from a nearby prison.

After being on the road awhile, Antoine realizes the man (Vincent Deniard) is the escaped convict, but this thrills him more than scaring him.

The convict is annoyed at his drinking, but soon falls asleep, when Antoine, drunk, runs off the road, causing a flat tire.

Antoine goes to the hospital, whereupon police lieutenant Levet (Jean-Pierre Gos) notifies him his wife was beaten, robbed, and raped by the dangerous convict, whose body has been discovered.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Red Lights is a taut, character-driven thriller, set against the debris-strewn battleground of a failing marriage.

[4] The New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden called the film a "brilliant, sinister French thriller".