As the Christmas holidays begin, a group of 10 war-obsessed kids have a wave of inspiration: What if they spend the next two weeks engaged in a simulated war, armed only with shields, wooden swords, snowballs, and a fierce sense of competition? With a bounty chest waiting for the winners, the two sides gradually grow in size, and the war grows in importance, taking over all aspects of their lives.

Juan Alvarez, a Spanish refugee in Canada, shoemaker, picks up at his home Manuel, a 12-year-old Portuguese teenager, whom he teaches to read, to assert his rights and who speaks of the Spanish civil war.

A government ministry's fast-rising head of security asks a shadowy fixer, Meursault, to steal a bag from an armored truck. Meursault goes to Théo, a former night club owner, in prison for two years on false charges, who's being released in exchange for information about Montreal's underworld. Théo agrees to steal the bag for money and safe passage to the US for himself and his son Robin. Théo brings in two helpers, Gilder, ex-con and set designer, and Roxanne, Gilder's friend, a tough-minded petty thief. Their elaborate plan blows up when a guard, Marcel, takes his responsibilities too seriously. What happens to father and son? Will any of the thieves escape?

After two boys are found dead and scalped in a remote cabin, a corrupt police chief puts the blame on an innocent indigenous man. Charlie Miton, who left this town a decade ago and never thought he'd come back, returns to help clear the name of his friend and find the truth.