Patriarch Louis Pelletier, a successful businessman with a dark past, has remained with his wife in Beirut, but his family have settled on French soil. Jean, the menacing eldest brother, hides a terrible secret and is trapped in a stifling marriage, though his life is enriched by his love for his three-year-old daughter. François, an up-and-coming reporter, is caught up in a volatile love affair; and Hélène, their younger sister, strives to make her own way as a journalist, but as a woman in a man's world, she faces extraordinary challenges as she fights to expose a vast industrial scandal.

Filled with twists and turns, dark and compelling, yet ripe with wit and surprising cliffhangers, The Silence and the Rage is the story of one remarkable family against the backdrop of France during one of its most thrilling and turbulent periods.