This ambitious French-language retelling of the 1837 Quebec rebellion against British rule caused a lot of controversy in Canada when it first came out, as it depicts the English as unreasonable oppressors who (among other things) desecrated a Catholic church during the fighting. The story centers around a man who is trying to keep clear of the fighting; though he has cause to dislike the British, he avoids joining the rebels. During his flight to the border, however, the effects of the conflict reach him again and again.