Working as a pharmacy clerk while dreaming of escape through dance, Normande St-Onge supports a household of dependent and unstable relatives. As her efforts to protect and hold together her improvised family intensify, the pressures of exploitation, eviction, and emotional isolation push her toward psychological collapse. Directed by Gilles Carle, the film blurs the boundary between fantasy and breakdown.

A humanity student, Lucien is active in various extracurricular activities. Recognized by his peers, he represents other students in their challenge of college rules and the settlement of the fate of an incompetent professor. He ends up being thrown out of the school. After his mother's death, even though he dates Lise, a young woman with whom he does acting, he has to resist the advances of a homosexual whose death he will accidentally cause.