Set against the tense backdrop of the October Crisis in Montreal, this drama follows Manon, a perceptive and resilient young girl who shoulders a heavy share of responsibility as her father battles cancer and her mother sinks into a nervous breakdown. Her Mimi little brother depends on her even more, and the two spend most days at the house of their aunt and uncle Simone and Gaston, alongside their cousins Martin and Denis. As the FLQ Manifesto flashes across the news and the nation debates the crisis, Manon struggles to discern whether the movemement is a moral beacon or a threat, while Gaston clashes with his revolutionary son, Paul. In a moment of feeling neglected and unseen, Manon pens her own little manifesto on children’s rights, and the looming threat of a foster-care placement rises from the headlines.
Driven by a desperate mix of hope and audacity, Manon hatches a plan to "get what she wants" by taking action rather than waiting for someone else to change their lot. She and Martin conspire to kidnap an elderly woman, Mrs. Robinson, and sign their note as the “Family Cell,” withholding from Mimi the fact that foster care might separate them. They convince Mimi that the scheme would bring them a true grandmother, and soon the four children—Manon, Mimi, Martin, and Denis—approach the house of [Mrs. Robinson], Halloween disguises in place, and successfully seize and drug the unsuspecting woman. The group escorts her to an abandoned cabin in Saint-Zénon, Quebec, where the fragile plan begins to unfold under the strain of age, language, and fear.
With the disappearance of four children, a search crowds the city. The authorities turn their attention to Paul, who emerges as a prime suspect due to a personal stash of revolutionary literature. The investigation unfolds against the mounting pressure of national events, including the War Measures Act invoked by the federal government. In Saint-Zénon, the situation grows more complicated when Mrs. Robinson awakens to discover she speaks only English, while the French-speaking kids struggle to understand her and she to understand them. The dynamic is further strained when it becomes clear that she requires medication and the supplies—pills—are running low. A pharmacist, Gary Boudreault, refuses to fill a Montreal prescription, underscoring the gulf between cultures and the kids’ precarious predicament.
As the tension tightens, the police close in on the kidnap case. Paul is arrested, and the federal government’s drastic measures cast a long shadow over everyone involved. The emotional toll is palpable: Manon and Mimi’s father dies, and Mrs. Robinson is taken to safety by ambulance, while Mimi is removed to a foster home and Manon ends up in a juvenile-delinquents center. Yet fate intervenes in small, stubborn ways. A social worker accidentally leaves Mimi’s new address and the keys to the center in front of Manon, and she seizes the moment to escape. With the keys in hand, she reunites with Mimi in the night and, in a hopeful mood, promises to take him to Disneyland. The siblings slip away into the dark, stepping into the unknown with a plan to walk toward a future that might still hold a glimmer of the ordinary joys they’ve always longed for.
