Helene Regnier (Stephane Audran) is a good mother with a checkered past as a stripper and barmaid. She divorces her ne'er-do-well husband and her in-laws blame her for causing her husband's addiction and set out to remove their grandchild from Helene's custody.

Thwarted by the courts, they hire a seedy penniless operative, Paul (Jean-Pierre Cassel), to destroy her reputation. He moves into her rooming house and begins to insinuate himself into her life, hatching darker and more convoluted plots to implicate Helene.

A harrowing thriller from France's master of suspense, La Rupture ranks among Chabrol's finest works.