Elizabeth (Genvieve Bujold) lives in a small French-speaking village in early 19th-century Canada. She was widowed once, thanks to the kind offices of an American royalist doctor. Her first husband's death was arranged by Elizabeth and the doctor, but after a crisis of conscience, the doctor returns to America without marrying her. Her story is told in flashbacks as she sits at the deathbed of her current, second husband. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi