Gilles de Maistre's political thriller Féroce (Ferocious) is about a man seeking revenge. Arab Alain (Samy Naceri) decides to join a fascistic French political party in order to assassinate the leader, Legle (Jean-Marc Thibault). Alain comes to this decision when his girlfriend's brother is murdered after he had defaced some of the party's paraphernalia. To improve the party's public stance on immigrants, Alain is hired as a security guard. Legle's daughter is attracted to Alain, who is tempted enough by the girl to abandon some of his religious convictions.
Esther, a Turkish emigrant, was naturalized French and now lives in Paris. Only her daughter Sarah has followed her. The child grows up in a cold boarding school, far from her mother, whose motives and stubbornness she does not understand, especially since Esther no longer visits or writes to her. Sarah thinks she has been abandoned. In reality, Esther, ill from so many hardships, does not want to reveal her condition to her daughter.
1936. Rafael, son of a Spanish nobleman, leaves the French Catholic institution where he was resident, recalled in his country by his father. Senior officer in Franco's army, it is that his son is involved in the civil war that tore Spain. Before joining the front, Rafael is assigned to a unit whose main mission is to take care of prisoners and execute subversive elements. The garrison was commanded by Colonel Masagual, a friend's father Rafael. Very old regime , the colonel who lives openly with his homosexuality Casado, his aide, is an ambiguous character, melancholy and cynical lucidity.