At the beginning of 1934, a financial scandal jeopardized the Third Republic. Businessman Serge Alexandre Stavisky dies mysteriously while he is about to be arrested.
He is accused of having set up scams worth several million francs, while benefiting from the support and goodwill of high-ranking people. These revelations have the effect of a bomb. The general public is outraged and demands that heads fall at the top of the corrupt state. The crisis becomes political and fuels the ambient anti-parliamentarism.