Whilst being transferred to a psychiatric hospital, a ruthless serial killer Gassot makes a break and goes on the run. He arrives in Marseilles, intending to escape abroad. Here, he falls for a young prostitute, Gerda.
Olivier, a young man, falls in love with Marion Renoir, theatre and screen star, to the despair of his fiancée Antonia. The latter goes to find the actress and asks her to invent a ploy to help her win back her lover's heart. The actress gets caught up in the game and ventures into an intrigue where simulation and sincerity are dangerously confused.
A military junta, led by the tyrannical colonel Tcheroff, reigns terror.
