The fictional retelling of an actual drug smuggling ring active in the 1960's and 1970s and referred to as the "French Connection," the film follows the exhasuting investigation of two New York City cops, Det. Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Det. Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Gene Schieder), as they investigate the activities of French heroin smuggling antagonist Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). As the two cops delve deeper and deeper into Charnier's activities they uncover the one of largest drug smuggling operations in the world, and become targets themselves.