The rivalry between the manipulative boss of an advertising agency and her talented protégée escalates from stealing credit to public humiliation to murder.

Christine (McAdams) possesses the natural elegance and casual ease associated with one who has a healthy relationship with money and power. She takes particular pleasure in exercising control over her admiring protege Isabelle (Rapace), leading her one step at a time ever deeper into a game of seduction and manipulation, dominance and humiliation.