The story revolves around two Prefecture of Police officers: Léo Vrinks (Daniel Auteuil), head of the Brigade de recherche et d'intervention and Denis Klein (Gérard Depardieu), head of the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme. Both want to catch a vicious gang of armoured-car robbers that have killed nine people. But when their immediate superior, the chief of the Direction Régionale de Police Judiciaire de Paris (André Dussolier), announces that he will soon retire, the rivalry pushes Klein to play dirty in order to get the promotion.