Paul Touvier, a former Vichy militiaman and sentenced to death in 1947 for war crimes, escapes justice thanks to powerful ecclesiastical support, living in hiding until his crimes are legally pardoned in 1967. After receiving a pardon from President Pompidou in 1973, he regains his confiscated property and seems to have escaped his criminal past. However, in 1989, a lengthy investigation by L'Express and the persistence of Colonel Jean-Louis Recordon reignite the hunt, leading to Touvier's discovery hiding in a priory in Nice.
The trial that opens in 1994 is a confrontation with France's occupied history, a quest for justice against a French citizen who served the Vichy regime. As a member of the Milice, Touvier was responsible for numerous executions of resistance fighters and anti-Semitic atrocities, notably the execution of seven Jews in 1944. His trial highlights the responsibility of the French state and the ambiguities of collaboration under Vichy.
