Claude Trudel

A young woman, living with her parents and siblings on a remote farm in harsh, picturesque northern Québec, has three suitors: a steady and unimaginative farmer, Eutrope, the Americanized and wealthy Lorenzo, who has sought his fortune in Boston, and François Paradis, a rough and virile logger who captures her heart despite the warnings of her parents and the village priest. For a year, marked by seasonal change in an atmosphere charged with the strangeness of Indians and the demons of the woods, we see Maria at work and prayer, struggling with decisions, choosing to stay in Canada, in love with François, seeking to change his rough behaviors, and dealing with extraordinary loss.

The story, in three stages, of a friendship between three guys. They have taken different paths, but find themselves equally faced with the failure of their lives. The parody is not exempt from what remains a fine analysis of behavior and environment. For these three Quebecers are, in a way, us, as we have been rendered by a society in search of itself.

A young police officer goes through Abitibi to take a train with a young convict who escaped from her orphanage.