Director Bertrand Tavernier transplants Jim Thompson's pulp novel Pop. 1280 from the American South to colonial Africa. In a dusty Senegal village, everyone likes to humiliate inept police chief Lucien Cordier (Philippe Noiret), including his two-timing wife (Stephane Audran). Out of the blue, the ostensibly brainless Lucien decides to seek vengeance on all those who've abused him and sets out to wipe the slate clean.