The Spider and the Fly

In 1913, Fernand Maubert, the dedicated chief of police in Paris, begins pursuing the suave bank robber Philippe Ledocq. After the latest robbery, Maubert captures Ledocq's accomplice, Madeleine Saincaise. The case sets Maubert on a collision course with Ledocq and his circle.

Madeleine is released from prison, and Maubert warns her to stay away from Ledocq. Despite the warning, Maubert finds himself drawn to her intelligence, beauty, and courage and begins courting her. The relationship complicates his professional judgment.

During one of their cordial meetings, Maubert tells Ledocq that Madeleine is different from his other women and has gotten under his skin. The confession marks a rare admission of personal vulnerability amid the pursuit. The dynamic between love, loyalty, and duty deepens.

As police are tipped off by an informant during an attempted theft, Ledocq escapes, while his accomplice Jean Louis and a policeman are killed. Maubert suspects Madeleine provided an alibi but cannot prove it, so he ends their affair. The case tightens around Ledocq.

Maubert engineers the betrayal: he convinces Jean Louis's brother Alfred to betray Ledocq by claiming Ledocq shortchanged his mother. Under the pressure of the escalating conflict, Ledocq is imprisoned just as World War I begins.

With the war underway, Maubert rises to major in French counterintelligence. He is drawn into high-stakes espionage aimed at curbing German intelligence operations on French soil.

The Minister of War orders Maubert to obtain a list of German spies kept in a safe at the German embassy in neutral Bern, Switzerland. Maubert asserts there is only one man for the job and offers Ledocq a pardon in exchange for his services; Ledocq agrees after hearing that he might see Madeleine.

The theft proceeds without a hitch, and Ledocq heads to Madeleine's flat with the plan in motion. He finds Maubert waiting there, indicating a personal trap as well as a political one. The operation becomes a confrontation of loyalty, love, and duty.

The twist lands when Madeleine's name is revealed on the stolen list. She is taken away with the implied sentence of treason. Maubert's carefully laid strategy collapses into a personal tragedy that complicates the war effort.

In the final scene, Maubert watches Ledocq, now an anonymous French soldier, board a train toward Verdun as intense fighting erupts. They both accept the grim odds of Ledocq's survival. The war casts a fatal shadow over their tangled fates.