During a high-society cocktail party at which Largo Winch announces the creation of a foundation to help child victims of war, the headwaiter brings him—on the “Chef’s surprise” platter—the head of one of his partners: assassinated by the drug traffickers he’s attempting to expose. This is but the beginning of a series of insidious machinations that will, within a few hours, turn the life of the financier upside down.
Two police detectives who escort him away are cut down before his eyes, and he soon finds himself accused of their murders. Meanwhile the DEA—the American Drug Enforcement Agency—accuses him of being up-to-his-neck in a vast network of heroin trafficking. The trap has been admirably sprung!

Hiding under the bridges of Paris, penniless amongst the tramps and homeless, Largo Winch has no chance of escaping the destiny that awaits him: a life sentence of hard labor...