Arcelor-Mittal, the world's largest steel company, has bought the steelworks in Liège and now wants to shut it down. The workforce is laid off, including Octavio, who has been working at the blast furnace for decades. Richard, an unsuccessful artist from Liège, doesn't want to accept this, especially since Octavio once saved his life.

Together with his friend Léon, Richard plans an ingenious scheme: kidnapping as an art performance, staged for media effect. The coup succeeds. Lakshmi Mittal falls for the two of them, and a television station takes the bait. But then things suddenly get out of hand.