France in the fifties. The teenage orphan Sylvie is put in an institution for "fallen" or endangered girls, subjected to harsh treatment by the bigoted nuns who run the institution like a prison. Sylvie befriends a girl who wants to escape.

Monsieur Joseph is a respected citizen of a small town in the North of France. For over four decades he has run a specialized bookshop in the shopping square of the town. Every morning before opening his shop, he has a nice cup of black coffee at the local cafe where he has a nice small talk with Julien, the barkeeper, and with the regulars. Everybody likes him. At least everybody did... Everything actually started to change the night his young wife Tina disappeared without trace. Now, Monsieur Joseph has become Youssef again, he is again the "foreigner" (wasn't he born of Kabyle parents?), the shady foreigner, the frightening foreigner... He can't but have murdered his wife, all the more as another woman was killed four years before without the culprit having been arrested. There is no smoke without fire, is there?...