After a trial instigated by his father, 18-year-old Thierry Chartier is ordered by the court to live with his grandmother in a small village in northern France. He works in the fields and fancies himself running the farm. To add a bit of spice to life, Thierry and his friend Rouillé (Rusty) – the village outcast – steal meat from a nearby slaughterhouse at the behest of a bunch of local restaurant owners. One night, when Thierry is on his own, he frees all the penned-in piglets. Although he hides his crime from his accomplice, the news spreads like wildfire throughout the district. One of their clients benefits from the situation and tries to cheat them. Rouillé goes nuts and Thierry can’t reel him in. Rouillé kills the restaurant owner. After serving five years in jail for being an accessory to murder, Thierry, armed with an English diploma, an extra tattoo, and permanent and eternal guilt, is granted parole if he returns to live with his parents. He works in the market, and is befriended by a group of truck drivers. But adversity overtakes him once again: he witnesses a murder. The police captain in charge of the investigation accuses him of the murder. Thierry denies the evidence against him – and therefore has only one option: to go on the lam. He ends up in a little seaside resort where he crosses paths with Fontaine, a café proprietor who doesn’t want to know anything about it.