In 1991, 24-year-old Detective Alexandre Falco has it all, a loving wife, a new-born daughter and his dream job. But one day out in the field, he is shot in the head. Falco opens his eyes again 22 years later to a changed world, where everything he once had is no longer as it was.

Several years after leaving the orphanage, to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with Baron Balsan gives her an entree into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing.

A girl arrives at her audition ten minutes early. Finding it difficult to learn her lines, she approaches a man nearby for help.