In Depression-era Winnipeg, a legless beer baroness hosts a contest for the saddest music in the world, offering a grand prize of $25,000.

Three young friends--Hart, Dean, and Chad--defend a hot young ice cream parlour employee, Brooker, from her abusive boss, Mikey, but inadvertently kill him in the process, forcing all of them to go on the run from the law in the form of Mikey's father, Police Chief Benton.

For over 130 years till 1996, more than 100,000 of Canada's First Nations children were legally required to attend government-funded schools run by various Christian faiths. There were 80 of these 'residential schools' across the country. Most children were sent to faraway schools that separated them from their families and traditional land. These children endured brutality, physical hardship, mental degradation, and the complete erasure of their culture. The schools were part of a wider program of assimilation designed to integrate the native population into 'Canadian society.' These schools were established with the express purpose 'To kill the Indian in the child.' Told through their own voices, 'We Were Children' is the shocking true story of two such children: Glen Anaquod and Lyna Hart.

A police constable guns down a First Nations chief one snow night in Winnipeg, a tragedy that will impact the community for years to come.

A Chicago sports radio shock jock is changed by a Christmas season encounter with a 15-year-old fan who is dying of cancer who forces him to be nice for a day.