Vidocq escapes captivity in 1805; years later he's a fabric merchant in Paris under an alias. He makes a deal of amnesty for catching criminals. He builds an efficient team of ex-cons to catch or kill them.

Under the reign of Napoleon, François Vidocq, the only man who escaped from the greatest penal colony of the country, is a legend of the low-Parisian world. Left for dead after his last spectacular escape, the ex-penal colony prisoner tries to make a new life under the guise of a single trader.—Hugo Van Herpe