The gangster and the minister tells the incredible story of the flamboyant gangster Lucien Rivard, and in parallel, that of Guy Favreau, a brilliant politician whose meteoric rise was slowed down by a scandal involving Rivard. In the background, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, accompanied by his friends Jean Marchand and Gérard Pelletier, imposes itself in the federal arena.—Normand Laniel