This history of oppression and its effects, at the heart of a French-Canadian family in the 1950s and 1960s, depicts a combination of prohibitions and censures. While the father demands the children's slavish obedience and labour, the mother promises some protection from his tyranny--until the family settles into a flea pit hotel at the cross-roads of a practically deserted village. Surrounded by an impenetrable forest, the hotel hosts regulars that resemble characters from Hugo and Gorki, and family life declines. In hopes of escape, the younger daughter marries while the elder, against her parents' wishes, immerses herself in studies and asks questions whose answers are disturbing.