Iona Gorrigan, a journalist of Basque origin, ends the interview with a repentant activist friend, when he is slaughtered before her eyes. The investigation is led by Martial Verdier, with whom Iona falls in love. During the interrogation, she opens up to Verdier and is completely frank, without realizing that she is being manipulated.

Pattern never changes. She finds lonely, anonymous, almost invisible women doing menial jobs, becomes their friend and confidante and then kills them and takes their identity, their job and their apartment. Police investigator Judith Corel serves as bait in an attempt to trap the chameleon killer.

For thirty years, French-Algerian sisters Zorah, Nohra and Djamila have been living in the hope of finding their brother Rheda, abducted by their father, and hidden in newly decolonised Algeria. Their relationship is shaken when Zorah, the eldest sister, decides to write a play based on the traumatising events of their childhood that haunted them their whole life. But when they learn that their father is dying, the three sisters decide to go to Algeria to seize their last opportunity to have him reveal where their brother is. When the past catches up, the three sisters have no choice but to put their differences aside.