Forty-year-old Joanne Guiberry runs a modest hairdressing salon in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Twice a year, at each solstice, she brightens up her rather dull life by meeting up with her lover. Twice a year, on the other side of the sea, on the banks of the immense St. Lawrence River, three hundred thousand snow geese land with a thunderous roar for a few weeks of feasting during their migration. Like a bridge between the time of the solstices and the time of the birds, there is Manon, a twenty-year-old student, and Louise, a large, wounded goose. Louise and Manon, each in their own way, will experience love and give Joanne a new lease on freedom.

In 1863, a group of snow-bound travelers invokes the devil, who gives them a flying canoe for them to go home. When one of them finds his wife about to die in labor, he makes a pact with the devil to save her and his newborn daughter Liza. He then cheats the devil of his prize by sacrificing himself. 25 years later, Liza wants to marry her beloved Jos, who has to go away to a remote logging camp to earn money to save his farm, but the devil is determined to ruin her happiness.