Des works at a boring job, and his girlfriend Julie is pressuring him to get married by claiming to be pregnant, so that she will not have to work. Laurie is living a life of quiet desperation with her husband Colin, an aspiring writer who refuses to look for a job. Des meets Laurie while visiting a work-mate who is dying of leukemia. While they go for a drive, Laurie invites Des to a rent party at their house. After this Vancouver counter-culture party, Colin finds Des and Laurie in bed together.

In Montréal, Jean-Pierre is fired on the set of a TV commercial where he's an apprentice technician. He's penniless, behind on his rent, with a thin resume and no college units. He has a fiancée, Michelle, but his head is turned by a free-spirited model, from the U.S., who saw him being fired and comes to his flat to apologize. She's Elizabeth, a combination of feckless innocence and sexual freedom. Jean-Pierre borrows money from his outlaw friend, Dock, and buys clothes to impress Elizabeth. Soon he's sleeping with her, and he pulls a theft with Dock to get money to take her to Acapulco. Michelle tries to bring him back to her orbit. Is there a way out for Jean-Pierre?