A policeman on a mission of mercy is shot dead at point-blank range by a sweet granny on a frosty morning. The neighbourhood, Paris's bubbling Belleville quarter, is already in uproar, because half a dozen other grannies have been found with their shrivelled throats slit. Into this tense situation stumbles Benjamin Malaussene, with his overly complicated life: his multitude of dependant siblings, their fecund and scatty mother, his stinking epileptic dog, Julius, and his journalist lover Julie, who would dearly like to keep all these complications to a minimum. Benjamin's unusual profession - that of a scapegoat in a publishing house - makes him the ideal person to be framed for just about everything, and he is. Meanwhile, two policemen are putting their all into solving the case: Van Thian, a cop ingeniously disguised, and his cherubic partner Pastor. The criminal galaxy explodes (not to mention the Paris police force) when the anarchic worlds of Benjamin, Julie, Thian, Pastor and the whole of Belleville finally collide.