It's June 1942. Five years have gone by, and Paris has changed. The Winter Velodrome, Inspector Séverin's favorite place, is soon to be put to different use. Aimé Louzeau, although still the fresh-faced young man he always was, has been profoundly affected by his encounter with Eeva, the panther woman. She seems to have stirred up all sorts of contradictions in him: policeman or Indian chief? The frivolities of the 30s have well and truly disappeared, to be replaced by drama, resignation and blind melancholy.