Magnate of a powerful trust, Coppolos has just been sent "ad patres" by the explosion of his private plane. A young civil servant, full of future, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Laurent, reveals to the commissioner in charge of the investigation that this murder meets conflicting interests, related to the east and to the west, as it should be. The west is called Alain Compton, the east is Georges Richter. There remains Anna Maria, former mistress of Coppolos, former wife of Richter, who probably would like to share in the cake and, meanwhile, lets himself be wooed by Alain.