A sweeping romantic fresco portraying the fates of a large cast of characters in 1890s Paris.

A series of bombings are terrorizing the capital. Police are searching for the anarchist Ravachol, and manage to collar him when a café waiter named Jules Lherot recognizes him among his customers. Word gets out in the anarchist community, and Lhérot becomes a target for revenge. Zelie, daughter of a working-class family, escapes from the detention center. She meets Jules who falls head over heels in love with her. He will become a policeman and she, a prostitute. Le Pêcheur takes us to the heart of a scandalous, rough-and-tumble Paris, a world where everyone has something to hide and the survival of a lucky few leads inevitably to others' suffering.