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In the 1930's, Max Brown is an urban young man from an Eastern province, fresh from college, whose only job offer is in a one-room school house in the Canadian prairie. At first he's distant, superior, lonely, and bewildered; his students are rebellious. Over the course of the year, he is drawn to Alice Field, the wife of a farmer, in a love that can lead nowhere. But, he and his students connect, a connection that matters and lasts.

It's the winter of 1940. Father Athol Murray - "Pere" to most that know him - is an opinionated, chain-smoking, hard drinking parish priest at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. His strong opinions include his disdain for socialism as epitomized by the CCF party in Saskatchewan and the current war which has claimed too many lives including those of former students, needing to raise money to operate the College by whatever means, and not wanting others to emulate his vices - especially not wanting the students and women to smoke - while he blissfully enjoys those vices himself. Despite these views, he is beloved by most that know him, although he often is the cause for consternation of the area's bishop, Bishop Williams. Pere may face backlash in the form of Ron Fryer, a new student to the College. Despite needing to "triumph over adversity" - his unofficial motto - every day in operating the College on a shoestring, a hockey game between the College's team, the Hounds, against the Moose Jaw Canucks, and the events immediately following may test Pere's resolve in dealing with adversity, and how it affects his students, including Fryer.

Montreal, Canada's last affordable city, is at the genesis of an unprecedented housing crisis. Portrait of sociopolitical resistance, this documentary explores the human impact of real estate speculation on the cities of tomorrow.