In 1972 a gold bullion convoy is hijacked in Marseilles. The security trucks & hijackers are swiftly rounded up but a ton of gold has disappeared. More than twenty years later Daniel Jac receives an unexpected gift from an old fisherman. At the same time a Marseilles lawyer called Claude Dupont receives an equally unexpected gift from a dying gangland boss. Both gifts point the way to the missing gold & pit Jac & Dupont against the Polineaux & Duclos familles two of the oldest & most feared crime syndicates on the Cote d Azur. When the Marseilles police become involved following a series of gruesome murders the investigation is headed by Chief Inspector Isabelle Cassier. An old friend & sometime lover of Jacquots Isabelle discovers that the years havent lessened her longing for the maverick Marseilles cop & that her feelings for him are far from professional. Together they embark on a cut-throat hunt for the gold with hit-men from the Polineaux & Duclos clans hot on their heels. But after nearly thirty years is the gold still there? & if it is who will get to it first?