When handsome, magnetic and a bit of a rogue, young Steven Brown returns to his hometown on the Gaspé peninsula in Quebec in 1936 after wandering around the world a bit, his added glamor sets many a female heart pounding. However, this same town is noteworthy for its claustrophobic air of moralistic repression, and one result of his return is an outbreak of crimes of passion, including a couple of rapes. In fact, for a short time it looks like his entire town is out to destroy itself. Somehow the young man survives to tell this tale as an old man, reliving his memories through flashbacks. This sensitively crafted film is based on a novel by Anne Hébert, and all the English characters in it were recast as French-speaking. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi