L'Etat Sauvage is based on the novel by Georges Conchon which won the highly esteemed Prix de Goncourt. The story chronicles the mindless racism of both the departing French colonial overlords and the emergent black Africans in a newly emerging African state. Laurence (Marie-Christine Barrault) suffers the outrage of her white acquaintances, including her former lover Gravenoir (Claude Brasseur) and her ex-husband Avit (Jacques Dutronc), for her affair with Patrice Doumbe (Doura Mane), an official in the new government. He in turn is ridiculed by his fellow cabinet ministers for stepping out with a white woman. The vilification escalates to such a point that Patrice is brutally murdered, and Laurence barely escapes the country alive, with the help of her ex-husband Avit.

La corruption, le racisme et la gabegie règnent dans la capitale d'un pays africain nouvellement indépendant. Là, le ministre de la Santé, homme intègre mais gênant, est exécuté. Sa maîtresse, une blanche, retourne alors vers son ancien mari, envoyé de métropole en mission culturelle. Ils échappent de peu au lynchage et tâchent par tous les moyens de regagner la France.