A "ripoux" is, in French slang, a policeman who accepts bribes, shakes down "honest" criminals for a cut of their action, at a level which can range from the familiar (U.S.) paradigm of accepting free donuts, to serious criminal activity. This comic police thriller is a sequel to the hugely successful 1984 film Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte about a pair of Parisian policemen, one an old, experienced "ripoux" and the other one an idealistic new-kid-on-the-block type, who has to be shown the ropes (and mildly corrupted) by the older man. In this story, Noiret's young partner is having misgivings about his misdeeds, and in any case wants to try for a promotion to police commissioner. What with one thing and another, this leads to both men being ignominiously transferred to another beat, to the (temporary) jubilation of the people they've been sponging off of for years. It turns out that the new cops on their old beat are far less helpful and easygoing than they were, and soon the denizens of their Montmartre district beat are beating on the doors of city hall begging for their return.