莱昂内尔（爱德华·诺顿 Edward Norton 饰）有着非常悲惨的过去，母亲在他很小的时候就撒手人寰，无依无靠的莱昂内尔被送进了孤儿院，幸运的是，在这里，他遇见了名为弗兰克（布鲁斯·威利斯 Bruce Willis 饰）的男子，在孤儿院里摸爬滚打这么多年，弗兰克一直对莱昂内尔提供着保护和帮助。离开孤儿院后，弗兰克成立了一家私人侦探所，莱昂纳尔则在其中打工。 某日，弗兰克去送一份非常危险而又神秘的文件，哪知道这个任务让他丢掉了性命。弗兰克的死给莱昂内尔带来了巨大的打击，但现在还不是哀悼的时候，莱昂内尔决定查出这场死亡时间背后的真相，为老友讨回一个公道。
Though Delluc's career was short-lived, it burst vigorously(7 films in 4 years)that it forever left its imprint on french cinema history, and they rightly honoured him by giving the annual Prix Delluc to the best French film of the year. He was responsible for the creation of influential cinema journals like Le Journal du Ciné-Club and Cinéa, founding numerous film societies, writing countless articles and coining the term cineaste. Delluc believed that films should be set in the natural without elaborate posturing, and characters should be portrayed in an intimate way where the past and present, illusion and reality can be correlated, all considered to be avant-garde at its time. He died only a few weeks after the shooting of The Flood at the age of 33.
