*In 1968, Paula Nelson travels to Atlantic-Cité to meet her ex-boyfriend, Richard Politzer, a writer known for his communist-leaning editorials, only to discover that he has died, reportedly of a heart attack.* A burst of chaos arrives when Edgar Typhus, a former associate, bursts into her hotel room and offers to help investigate Richard’s death, but Paula knocks him out and drags him to the neighboring room, where she meets Richard’s nephew, the writer David Goodis, and David’s girlfriend, Doris Mizoguchi. The spark of a mystery lights up as Paula starts digging, and she soon finds herself being tailed by local police inspector Paul Widmark and the enigmatic Donald Siegel.
*Her questions lead her to suspect a link between Richard’s death and the earlier death of Lacroix, the communist mayor of Atlantic-Cité, stirring a dangerous web of power and loyalty.* An anonymous call summons Paula to a warehouse where a masked figure knocks her out again. She comes to in a garage, where Widmark interrogates her, showing audio tapes of Richard’s fervent political pronouncements and pressing for knowledge about any hidden evidence Lacroix might have kept.
Back at Paula’s hotel, the mood shifts as police swarm the place and learn that Typhus and Doris have been killed, while Inspector Aldrich arrives from Paris to take a look at the case. Widmark tells Paula that Aldrich suspects her but promises help if she helps locate the evidence he seeks, though Paula remains wary, convinced that Aldrich may have had a hand in Richard’s death. Aldrich himself interrogates Paula, but the inquiry falters when David, initially accusing Paula of murder, changes his story.
As the investigation deepens, Paula uncovers that Richard owned a secret villa. Siegel, who’s been sidelined by Widmark, shows her photos of Richard’s murder and admits he killed Typhus and Doris after they caught him rummaging through Paula’s room, offering to take her to the villa in exchange for money. Paula shoots him before he can reveal more.
Aldrich reports he’s been ordered to suspend the case and returns to Paris. Paula pieces together that an extremist faction within the local Communist Party arranged Richard’s death to blame moderate leftists in a power grab, and then silenced Richard to tie up loose ends. Teaming up with Widmark to protect themselves from a double-cross, Paula crafts a plan: she will write a letter confessing to Typhus’s murder, while Widmark pens a confession about Richard’s murder. The gambit aims to shield Paula—until Widmark’s letter implicates not only Richard but also the powerful Dr. Edward Ludwig.
When Paula reaches for her gun, Widmark moves to shoot, but David sneaks up and shoots Widmark from behind, killing him. Paula then kills David, sealing a grim turn in the conspiracy.
At a tollbooth on the highway, Paula spots her friend Philippe Labro driving by and climbs into his car. He voices doubt about a fascist uprising, but Paula remains certain there will be one, and she vows she’ll still have the energy to fight back. Philippe contends that the political left and right are the same, prompting Paula to ask how such disputes should be discussed, a closing line that leaves her intent and resolve open to the future.
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