马蒂厄已经35岁，却从未见过自己的父亲。母亲解释缘由时只推托说他是一夜情的结果。一天，他接到一个陌生来电，这个电话告诉他，他的亲生父亲刚刚过世。于是马蒂厄暂别妻子和孩子，决定飞去加拿大参加葬礼，并见见他那两个素未谋面的兄弟。在蒙特利尔，除了父亲的好友皮埃尔，没人知道他的存在与真实身份。但与此同时，马蒂厄也意识到他似乎进入了一个充满敌意的地方。

1966年夏天，迎接暑假到来的三姊弟，一如往常地嬉戏玩乐，与家人讨论暑假的旅游计划。看似和乐的家庭，直到母亲意外得知父亲不可告人的秘密后，逐渐崩解。这回透过小孩们的无奈答话，充分展现二战之后逐渐弥漫的保守氛围，并讥讽当时社会的道德假面。

Set in a small Quebec town in the late-1920′s, this emotional drama follows the life and exploits of Celeste Beaumont, a talented young pianist who gains local celebrity at the town movie theater for her gifts as a silent film pianist. Awkward Pierre Blaudell is her biggest fan and eventually marries her. Shortly after this she bears his son, Pierre, who joins the army. She insists on joining him at the base and his meddlesome, snooty parents insist she give them her son. Pierre is killed in the war, and Celeste flees to New York where she finds steady employment as a jazz pianist. She finds a life-long companion with a black musician and chronicles her experiences in a diary that she passes on to her son after he grows up. Her son becomes a painter and once his own son, Antoine, is grown, reads him the story of Celeste, the youth’s grandmother. Intrigued, Antoine heads to the Big Apple in hopes of finding her.
This movie is an emotional drama about how Antoine, played beautifully by François Méthé, discovers the details of his heritage. This film won many awards in Canada and at Cannes in 1988. François Méthé, who was about 11-years-old, never acted again after this movie.
From IMDb:
A quiet painter, separated from his wife for a year, receives a suitcase in the mail from his mother, whom he hasn’t seen since infancy. He believes she abandoned him to his wealthy, paternal grandparents. The suitcase contains mementos and a diary, a long letter to him, written over the years, with details of her youth, her first job as a pianist at a cinema, the coming of talkies, her marriage, and how he came to live with his grandparents. As he reads through the materials and her story comes to life, his son Antoine, who’s about 10 or 12, tries to break through his father’s silence and sorrow by taking matters into his own hands.

Gaby owns a farm on which he raises lambs: Bouchard & Sons Farm. But he has no sons. Rather, he has two daughters that he raised like princesses and who live far away, in the big city. One day, the oldest asks him for some financial support so she doesn't end up losing her house. Gaby, for whom fatherhood has evolved to a point where it became unreasonable, decides to dismantle the farm.

Industrial pollution causes water poisoning and generalized sickness in a nearby city and is the start of a major news scandal.

退休教授皮埃尔来到冲绳旅游，邂逅离家出走的主妇纯子，在短短的旅程中，两人产生了一段不平凡的友谊，也各自打开心结。作为一个拍过多部日本题材并获奖无数的加拿大导演，克劳德·加侬用一部类似《广岛之恋》的异国恋题材，在展现冲绳美丽异域风光的同时，表达了自己对日本文化深厚的理解。加拿大老牌演员加布里埃尔·阿坎德与日本的国际明星工藤夕贵完美阐释了两个孤独灵魂的情感互动，而九十多岁的人间国宝平良敏子在片中也有亮相。