It is 1952 and the Pelletier family have returned to a life in France. Patriarch Louis Pelletier, a successful businessman with a dark past, has remained with his wife in Beirut, but his family have settled on French soil. Jean, the menacing eldest brother, hides a terrible secret and is trapped in a stifling marriage, though his life is enriched by his love for his three-year-old daughter. Francois, an up-and-coming reporter, is caught up in a volatile love affair; and Helene, their younger sister, strives to make her own way as a journalist, but as a woman in a man's world, she faces extraordinary challenges as she fights to expose a vast industrial scandal.