A dying man drags his oxygen machine into the office of Ćric Besson, a lawyer in Parisās thirteenth arrondissement. For decades, the old man has been helping a cadre of dirty cops launder stolen money and has been keeping meticulous investment records to prove it. The dilapidated notebook he hands over to Besson contains his full confessionāheās waited fifty years to make it, and now he canāt wait another day. He is adamant that Besson get the notebook into the hands of La Proc, Parisās chief prosecuting attorney, so the corruption can finally be brought to light. But en route to la Proc, Bessonās courierāhis assistant and nephewāis murdered, and the notebook disappears.
Grief-stricken, Ćric Besson tries to hire private investigator AimĆ©e Leduc to find the notebook, but she is reluctant to get involved. Her father was a cop and was murdered by the same dirty syndicate the notebook implicates. Sheās not sure which sheās more afraid of, the dangerous men who would kill for the notebook or the possibility that her fatherās name might appear in its pages. Ultimately thatās the reason she must take the case, which leads her across the Left Bank, from the Cambodian enclave of Khmer Rouge refugees to the ancient royal tapestry factories to the modern art galleries, in a race against the clock to thwart these men who will stop at nothing to protect their criminal enterpriseāeven threatening AimĆ©eās infant daughter.