After its abortive attempt to assassinate President De Gaulle in August 1962, the French Secret Army (O.A.S.), under its new chief Col. Rodin, decides to hire a top professional assassin. An Englishman, code name The Jackal, is selected. Wind of the affair reaches the French authorities via the interrogation of one of Rodin's bodyguards. They entrust France's most skilled detective, Claude Lebel, with the seemingly impossible task of identifying The Jackal.