The eve of the Christmas holidays as 2000 is about to be ushered in. A few days earlier, The Erika sank, spilling oily waste onto the coastline of Brittany. Unforeseen by meteorological centres, a gigantic storm is forming off the coast and is about to cross the Atlantic and strike Europe.

Martial is in a hurry to leave the high court where he works as clerk, having promised to pick his son up from school. Seven-year-old Lulu wants his mates to see his father’s new car with the spare wheel attached to the back. As his parents cross the schoolyard, bangers can be heard and a series of explosions. Kids celebrating the start of the holidays? But when a teacher comes running out and collapses in a pool of blood, Martial realises what is happening. Risking his life as the police rapidly deploy, he manages to reach his son and get him to safety, or so he thinks. His life has just been irrevocably turned upside down.