In this filmed version of Flemish author Jef Gheeraerts' novel, Robert 'Robbe' Parain, an arrogant Antwerp police detective who operates at the limits of illegality and is in personal debt, tenaciously traces but also gets personally entangled in the dark, ruthless, criminal sides of the publicly so glamorous trade in diamonds, notably in his native Antwerp, Hong Kong, Brussels and Congo.

In this art-film, a famous multimedia artist abandons his former life for a new one in a hermetically sealed room filled with living portraits. His new space becomes a haven for the terminally dysfunctional. Trouble ensues when two strangers, the world-weary Col. Hardy and the handsome son of an aspiring presidential candidate, come to collect on a commissioned work of art.