Corey is released early from a Marseille prison for good behavior, and just before his departure a warden hints at a prestigious Paris jewelry shop that could be robbed. Motivated and strategic, he heads to the home of a former associate, Rico, who has let him down and where his former girlfriend now lives. There, he forcibly takes money and a handgun from Rico’s safe. From the safe, he also seizes a troubling reminder of the past as he plans his next move. He then goes to a billiard hall, where two of Rico’s men confront him. After a brief, brutal exchange, Corey kills one attacker, incapacitates the other, and pockets the gun. He purchases a large American car, hides both handguns in the boot, and drives toward Paris, all while the night radio plays jazz and headlines. A police roadblock looms ahead, signaling the weight of the incoming pursuit.
The same morning, Vogel, a prisoner being transported from Marseille to Paris for interrogation by the esteemed Mattei, makes a breakout in open country. He races ahead of the officers, who order roadblocks and intensify the search for him. Corey, recognizing the scale of the manhunt, stops at a roadside grill at the heart of the chase, leaving his car’s boot momentarily unlocked. Vogel slips into the grill’s vicinity, fords a stream to shed the bloodhounds’ scent, and then hides inside the boot of Corey’s car. Corey, who has anticipated this moment, drives away into an open field and tells Vogel he can emerge and be safe. The two men slip into a wary alliance, driving to Paris with Vogel concealed in the car’s boot.
Not long after, a car carrying Rico’s men overtakes Corey, forcing him off the road. They strip him of his money and are ready to kill him when Vogel finally surfaces, and with the guns now in hand, he shoots both attackers dead. Corey brings Vogel to an empty Paris flat, and the plan to carry out the jewelry job begins to take shape. Mattei continues to hunt for Rico’s killers and to recapture Vogel, pressing hard on Santi, a nightclub owner who knows much of the underworld but refuses to talk.
Corey assembles a crew, recruiting Jansen, an alcoholic ex-policeman and crack shot, along with a fence, to execute the robbery. One long night later, Corey, Vogel, and Jansen manage to pull off the jewelry heist. Yet their hopes are dashed when the fence refuses the goods, warned off by a vengeful Rico who had, from the start, been told by the warden that Corey was the job to run.
Despite the setback, Jansen and Vogel propose that Corey seek another fence through Santi. Mattei then resorts to pressure, blackmailing Santi to reveal information about a planned meeting at Santi’s nightclub, where Corey is set to meet the fence. Mattei also poses as the fence himself, instructing Corey to bring the loot to a secluded country house. Corey agrees, bringing Jansen as backup and leaving Vogel behind at his apartment, where Vogel has the red rose Corey received from the flower girl at Santi’s.
When Corey arrives at the country house and begins to show the jewels to Mattei, Vogel appears from the shadows, perhaps sensing that Corey is not safe with this new fence, and urges Corey to flee with the loot. A tense chase follows, with Mattei pursuing the escape. Vogel tracks the action, and Jansen, alerted by gunshots in the mansion’s park now filled with police, moves to intervene and stop the pursuers. In the end, Mattei’s officers move in, and one after another, Corey, Vogel, and Jansen are shot dead, the jewels recovered by the authorities.
