Maria Chapdelaine

Lac Saint-Jean region, early 1910s. Maria, the eldest daughter of Samuel Chapdelaine, a settler whose his land is located a fair distance from the village, is courted by three men of very different characters. First there is François Paradis, a charming coureur des bois whom she has known since childhood; then Eutrope Gagnon, a shy neighbor who clears his own plot; and finally, Lorenzo Surprenant, an employee of a factory in Massachusetts, who lives a hectic life in the big city. Faced with so much attention, Maria turns to her mother, a courageous and hard-working woman, for advice.