Paris, December. A conductor of a choir is found mysteriously murdered, with burst eardrums. Lionel Kasdan, a police inspertor the verge of retirement, and Frank Salek, an official of Interpol, embark together on a hunt for the killer, and also to a secret organization specializing in kidnapping children.

The daily lives of the inhabitants of "le Mistral", an imaginary neighbourhood in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, where wealthy families cross paths with the less than rich.