Grelots rouges, sanglots bleus

Two strangers have a fateful one-night stand in Montréal.

In 1838, François-Xavier Bouchard fights beside his Québec countrymen and the English minority.

Two harum-scarums who think they are good stand-up comics try to make a career in showbiz, partly for the career, partly to seduce women. They try alternatively the scene, a movie set and TV. They only succeed in making a fool of themselves

Gilles meets Guylaine on a beach. He's a bookish scholar with glasses; she's a waitress in a blue-collar bar in a rough part of Montreal. Gilles comes for a visit... Guylaine's brother Bob works for the brutal gangster Matroni. Two toughs have hijacked a tractor-trailer full of stolen car parts that Matroni was about to deliver to an even worse gangster, Boyd. Boyd is very dangerous and he wants those parts. Guylaine's friend Linda knows the hijackers and has left their names with her mum in a letter. The thugs have gotten to Bob and beaten him up, so that means only one person can take the letter to Matroni at his autowrecking yard, polite and courteous Gilles...

A chronicle of the lives of a couple and the gradual dissolution of their relationship.