1935, Paris: David Talbot is a successful and well-respected member of the French Foreign Service. Everything is going his way: he is responsible for handling a large public trust, is pegged as the next French Ambassador to Brazil, and is still in the honeymoon phase of his marriage to his newlywed bride, Lucienne Talbot. He receives a letter addressed to "Jean" -- although David Talbot is the addressee on the envelope -- asking for the FF1 million owed. He eventually learns the letter writer accuses him of really being Jean Pelletier, who committed a bank robbery and murder in 1922. Half of the proceeds (FF1 million) is apparently owed to Pelletier's partner(s) in crime. Part of Talbot's background is that he was long ago treated by Dr. Andre Tessier, still a close friend, for amnesia as the result of a physical trauma. The one person who could positively identify him did so as David Talbot, now believed deceased. Two people (wanting the FF1 million loot) clandestinely continue to claim Talbot truly is Pelletier -- they are revealed to be wine merchant Henri Sarrou and cabaret singer Michelle Allaine. Although publicly cleared of the accusation, Talbot goes on a search for the truth. And Lucienne, knowing of the accusation but not knowing of the mounting pressure placed on him by Sarrou and/or Allaine, cannot help but wonder herself.