Victor Soumis

In the 1950s, young boys were placed in orphanages and endure harsh and austere living conditions. As a united group, they supported each other and survived despite bullying, hardship and little hope for better days. While these children were doing their best to survive, they had no way to suspect the secret dealings between the clergy, the medical profession and the government that will inevitably seal their fates. The institution faced with a precarious financial situation, the solution is to transform the orphanage into a psychiatric institute in order to obtain additional subsidies. To demonstrate the need for this change in status, the orphans are labeled as insane by the very people who took them in to help them. While their future as orphans was already precarious, they become prisoners of an asylum system from which they have little hope of being able to free themselves even as they grow older.

Teen-aged sisters Jude and Maureen, living with their volatile father in Montréal, live a life of substance abuse, hustling and petty theft. After Jude's father kicks her out of the house for her abusive and thieving ways, Jude is forced to survive on the streets with the assistance of her odd assortment of friends, including middle aged pedophile Clarence, pre-teen male hustler Georgie, pimp Big Al, and Maureen's junkie boyfriend Gabe. Georgie has a crush on Jude, while Jude unrealistically fantasizes about a normal married life with Gabe. All the while, Jude is also trying to elude the sadistic Mink, who she inadvertently crossed