Roger Scatti (Serrault) is a conservative police inspector of the old school. He finds intolerable the liberalization of the justice system. More and more people from the underground world slip away from the justice. Finding allies in the police circles, he founded the ultra-right secret illegal organization called "Police devotion". Its purpose is the immediate punishment, usually death, of the notorious criminals, with no trials or whatever inquiries and no bureaucracy. The activities of the organization are particularly brutal, serving for edification to the public. When the punitive operations of the "Police devotion" go out of all bounds, the police chief Cazalières (Gérôme) assign a task to inspector Eugéne Grindel (Delon) to investigate the present circumstances.