Grace Pine, a 22-year-old music critic working for Merge Weekly in Toronto, heads to Montreal for the summer to write a quirky, intimate 33 1/3 book about Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. She finds a cluttered apartment in the Mile End neighborhood with a roommate named Madeleine, a local DJ who shares the space with her boyfriend, Hugo Côté, the drummer for the rising indie rock band Bone Patrol. Grace pitches her project to New York editor Phoebe Reilly via Skype, and a publishing deal soon follows, along with a modest $500 advance that she cautiously accepts as a foothold in a city that feels both thrilling and overwhelming. The arrangement sets a rhythm for the summer that will test her ambitions, her finances, and her tolerance for the messy realities of artistic pursuit.
On Grace’s first night in Montreal, Madeleine invites her to a loft party where she is DJing. There, Grace meets Archie Webber, the sensitive, winsome guitarist for Bone Patrol, and they spark a quick, hazy bond after they share some marijuana. Grace watches Bone Patrol perform and is immediately drawn to Chevy Olsen, the band’s lead singer, whose pretentious veneer irritates as much as it fascinates. The two strike up a hesitant, awkward conversation after the show, and despite Madeleine’s warning that Chevy is far from easy, Grace is unable to ignore the pull she feels toward him. After the party, Grace and Archie head home together and discover they are next-door neighbors, a coincidence that adds a new layer of tension to Grace’s otherwise careful, professional plan for Montreal.
Grace invites Archie to become more than a bystander in her life, hoping for a familiar, almost cinematic connection. Archie, however, is celibate for personal reasons, and his restraint introduces a balancing edge to their growing proximity. Meanwhile, Grace’s day-to-day life in Mile End expands as she wanders into the neighborhood, including a quick stop at the nearby Kicks shoe store, where Chevy works a day job. When Chevy mentions Bone Patrol’s debut EP, Grace offers to take on the role of publicist, a proposition that Chevy accepts with a measured optimism that hints at trouble ahead.
The narrative then shifts to Grace’s financial reality. With no money in her bank account, she emails Jeff—the former Merge editor she had a complicated past with—about the $4,000 he owes her. A flashback reveals their complicated relationship, including an affair, which adds an embittered layer to her current professional anxieties. For a while, Grace sets aside her Alanis Morissette project to craft a review of Bone Patrol’s debut EP for the Montreal Mirror, using the piece to test how far she can push her voice in a male-dominated music scene. She even tries to spark something with Chevy in her apartment, but their chemistry remains fraught; he suggests keeping things strictly professional, a boundary that Grace is reluctant to honor.
The tension spikes at a loft party where Grace is meant to read an excerpt from her Alanis book as part of a poetry reading. Archie quietly advises her to proceed with confidence, but Grace reads nothing and instead leaves with Chevy, stepping into a different kind of risk. The moment has consequences back home: a voicemail from Phoebe informs Grace that her contract has been terminated due to poor communication, and the sting of that message lands hard as she listens in tears. Madeleine scolds her for being selfish, reminding Grace that she owes rent for two months. The emotional weight of the rejection and the rent ultimatum hits Grace at once, and she finds herself at a crossroads between pursuit and practicality.
Archie later explains that he is celibate because of an oral herpes diagnosis, but he also confesses his lingering feelings for Grace. When she reveals that she has been seeing Chevy, Archie blurts out the biting truth that Chevy had called her a "cum dumpster" during the poetry reading. The blunt insult lands with a wrenching clarity, and the moment crystallizes the cost of Grace’s pursuit of romance in a city where power dynamics often blur ethical lines. The confrontation leaves Grace feeling defeated, prompting her to return to Toronto and confront Jeff about both his treatment of her and the unpaid funds she’s owed.
Yet the story doesn’t end there. Grace returns to Montreal for Bone Patrol’s EP launch, where she makes amends with Madeleine, paying off the rent she owed. Chevy makes a last, awkward romantic gesture, but Grace pushes back, telling him to “fuck off” and asserting a hard-won boundary. In a quieter, more intimate moment, she delivers a reading about her experiences as a female music critic navigating a field dominated by men, a piece that reframes her journey as much as it reveals the toll of ambition on personal life.
Before she heads home to Toronto for the final time, Grace spends a day with Archie, riding around in the Bone Patrol van as they drift toward a sense of possibility. The two share a kiss and a charged moment of potential, leaving their future open but rooted in the honest, messy momentum of what they’ve just endured together. The summer in Montreal, with its blend of creative fever, romance, disappointment, and resilience, leaves Grace listening to the music she’s chasing with new ears and a more tempered sense of what it means to write about life as it unfolds.
> "cum dumpster"
The season’s hot mess and bright discoveries collide in this observant, candid portrait of a young critic trying to chart her own voice while negotiating love, jealousy, debt, and the unpredictable tempo of a creative city.
